May 23, 2018 - Landsat 9 OLI-2 Instrument Focal Plane Integration

Photos recently shared by Ball Aerospace in Boulder, CO show technicians working on Landsat 9’s Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) instrument in the cleanroom during focal plane integration. The focal plane is where OLI-2 detectors are located and where the radiances to be measured are incident. This “push-broom” design is similar to OLI onboard Landsat 8 which results in a more sensitive instrument providing improved land surface information with fewer moving parts. 

All focal plane integration photos can be viewed on NASA’s Landsat Science webpage.