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What are the acquisition schedules for the Landsat satellites?

The Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 satellites orbit the Earth at an altitude of 705 kilometers (438 miles) in a 185-kilometer (115-mile) swath, moving from north to south over the sunlit side of the Earth in a sun synchronous orbit, following the Worldwide Reference System (WRS-2). Each satellite makes a complete orbit every 99 minutes, completes about 14 full orbits each day, and crosses every point on Earth once every 16 days. 

The satellite orbits are offset to allow 8-day repeat coverage of any Landsat scene area on the globe. Between the two satellites, approximately 1,500 scenes are added to the USGS archive each day. 

Traveling on the descending (daytime) node from north to south, the satellites cross the equator on each pass at a time that provides the maximum illumination with minimum water vapor (haze and cloud build-up). Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 cross the equator at 10:00 a.m. +/- 15 minutes (mean local time) in their respective orbits 

The Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 satellites each acquire data in accordance with their respective Long Term Acquisition Plan (LTAP) using parameters such as seasonality, land definition, historical cloud cover, gain settings, and sun angle. 

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