Introduction
Landsat satellite missions
The Landsat Series is a joint USGS and NASA-led enterprise for Earth Observation that represents the world's longest running system of satellites for moderate-resolution optical remote sensing for land, coastal areas and shallow waters. The Landsat mission, which began in 1972 with the Landsat 1 satellite, represents the longest continuous space-based recording of data on the continental surface of the Earth. From Landsat 4 onwards, the Earth's surface was scanned and imaged by each of the satellites at intervals of about two weeks with a resolution of 30 metres using multispectral and thermal scanners.
The sensors aboard each of the Landsat satellites were designed to acquire data in different ranges of frequencies along the electromagnetic spectrum. The Multispectral Scanner (MSS) carried on Landsat 1,2,3,4 and 5 collected data in four bands; the Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor on Landsat 4 and Landsat 5 included those found on earlier satellites and also introduced a thermal and a shortwave infrared band. A panchromatic band was added to Landsat 7's Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) sensor. While the earlier satellites carried just one sensor, Landsat 8 acquires data in 11 bands from two separate sensors: the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS). The instruments on Landsat 9 were designed as improved copies of the Landsat 8 sensors. USGS
Please find the band designations for each sensor here. For commonly used band combinations, have a look at this site.
Satellites: Landsat 1, Landsat 2, Landsat 3, Landsat 4, Landsat 5, Landsat 7, Landsat 8, Landsat 9
Acquisition Date: August 1982 - present
Geographical Coverage: 81° N - 81° S
Spectral Range: 0.45 - 12.5 µm (TM, ETM, OT); 0.5 - 1.1 µm (MSS)
Coordinate System: UTM/WGS84
| Instrument | Acquisition date | Spatial resolution | Product guide | Website | Data Source | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thematic Mapper (TM) | August 1982 - May 2012 | 30 m (120 m - thermal) | Link | Link | USGS | Landsat 4-5 TM Collection 2 Level-2 - doi.org/10.5066/P9IAXOVV |
| Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) | July 1999 - April 2022 | 30 m (60 m thermal, 15 m pan) | Link | Link | USGS | Landsat 7 ETM+ Collection 2 Level-2 - doi.org/10.5066/P9C7I13B |
| Operational Land Imager (OLI) /Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) | April 2013 - present | 30 m (100 m TIRS, resampled to 30 m) | Link | Landsat 8 Landsat 9 | USGS | Landsat 8-9 OLI/TIRS Collection 2 Level-2 - doi.org/10.5066/P9OGBGM6 |