Landsat 9 is a partnership between NASA and USGS. The satellite will continue the Landsat program’s mission to capture repeat snapshots of Earth to monitor, understand and manage natural resources.
Innovations
Landsat 1
The Landsat Program debuted with the July 23, 1972, launch of the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS), later renamed Landsat 1.
The Landsat Program debuted with the July 23, 1972, launch of the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS), later renamed Landsat 1.
Monitoring Agriculture
A key achievement for the Landsat Program is keeping an eye on cropland around the globe.
A key achievement for the Landsat Program is keeping an eye on cropland around the globe.
National Land Cover Database
Landsat provides land cover information that's used by many agencies and organizations.
Landsat provides land cover information that's used by many agencies and organizations.
Along the way to its unparalleled 50 years of Earth observations, the Landsat Program contributed to many firsts in remote sensing. Thanks to Landsat applications, people could identify the crops growing infields. They could see the boundaries of forests, urban areas, wetlands, fields, and grasslands. They could tell how much water irrigation was using. Here are some notable achievements.
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Landsat 1: Originally named Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS), the first Landsat launched July 23, 1972, as the first satellite explicitly designed to study the Earth’s surface.
MSS Sensor: The Multispectral Scanner, or MSS, aboard Landsat 1 was the first Earth observation satellite sensor in space. Designed by “Mother of Landsat” Virginia Norwood, the MSS started out as a secondary instrument on Landsat 1, but it and its data outperformed the primary instrument.
Landsat 5: This particular satellite was designed to provide imagery for three years. It launched March 1, 1984, and sent back data for nearly 29 years, earning it the Guinness World Record title of Longest Operating Earth Observation Satellite.
New Discoveries: Landsat imagery has led to the discovery of an unknown island, several butterfly species, and mineral deposits. The island off the northeastern coast of Labrador actually bears the name Landsat Island.
Agricultural Monitoring: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service began the first effort to monitor crop production globally when Landsat 1 launched. Because of this and additional crop monitoring efforts, the USDA is the “first and longest-running operational land-imaging satellite user” in the United States. Read more about it here.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details
Land Cover Mapping: Landsat forms the basis of the National Land Cover Database (NLCD), completed in 2001 as the first seamless land cover map of the entire conterminous United States. It serves as the definitive land cover map, updated and applied to many land cover and land change uses by agencies and organizations across the U.S.
Global Forest Inventory: Landsat formed the basis of a global forest inventory that yielded Global Forest Watch, a forest monitoring and alert system.
Global Surface Water Inventory: Landsat’s archive formed the basis of a global surface water inventory that yielded the Global Surface Water Explorer, which displays decades of changes in surface water.
50-Year Archive: The Landsat Program has made it a priority to archive Landsat scenes from the beginning and make them available to the public, achieved through the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. This adds up to 10 million scenes and counting.
Collections: Perhaps the 50-year archive is not so much an innovation as a springboard to innovation. In 2016, for example, the USGS aligned, corrected and harmonized the geometry and radiometry of every clear Landsat pixel from 1972 through the present, packaging the archive into a library called Collection 1, which grew by hundreds of scenes each day. The USGS upgraded and improved the archive yet again with Collection 2, further synchronizing and harmonizing the archive.
Change Over Time: In practice, the archive's harmonization allowed researchers to "stack" Landsat tiles through time to study change at the pixel level with greater confidence. The gold standard of calibration and Landsat's collections strategy, along with advances in computing power, helped scientists tackle previously unmanageable tasks. The LCMAP initiative, for example, tracks land cover and change on the pixel-by-pixel level from 1985 through the present. The RCMAP project, an outgrowth of NLCD's efforts to map rangeland ecosystems, maps percent coverage of rangeland components such as bare ground, sagebrush, and litter for each pixel of land in the western United States.
Water Use: Landsat's thermal band helps determine water use at the scale of an agricultural field by measuring evapotranspiration (ET), or the water evaporating from the land surface and transpiring from plants. The archive provides a look at historical trends in irrigation use for comparison with current use.
Related Content
Listen to podcasts spotlighting Landsat's contributions.
A Legacy Continues with Landsat 9 Launch
Landsat 9 is a partnership between NASA and USGS. The satellite will continue the Landsat program’s mission to capture repeat snapshots of Earth to monitor, understand and manage natural resources.
Eyes on Earth Episode 54 - National Land Cover Database 2019
The National Land Cover Database, or NLCD, was the first and remains the most well-known set of satellite-based land cover mapping products released by EROS. It sorts the each 30-by-30-meter plot of land in the United States into a land cover class, such as cropland, pasture, high-intensity developed, deciduous forest, and the like.
The National Land Cover Database, or NLCD, was the first and remains the most well-known set of satellite-based land cover mapping products released by EROS. It sorts the each 30-by-30-meter plot of land in the United States into a land cover class, such as cropland, pasture, high-intensity developed, deciduous forest, and the like.
Eyes on Earth Episode 44 – Landsat Water Atlas
Dr. Alan Belward has spent a lot of time thinking about the planet’s surface water. The former Landsat Science Team member uses satellite data to track changes to lakes, rivers, and streams, and recently published a book that uses Landsat data to tell some of those stories.
Dr. Alan Belward has spent a lot of time thinking about the planet’s surface water. The former Landsat Science Team member uses satellite data to track changes to lakes, rivers, and streams, and recently published a book that uses Landsat data to tell some of those stories.
Earth Observation Case Study: Landsat to Map Ag. Yields and Irrigation
Social scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Fort Collins Science Center – in collaboration with the USGS National Land Imaging Program – conduct Earth observation user case studies using qualitative research methods.
Social scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Fort Collins Science Center – in collaboration with the USGS National Land Imaging Program – conduct Earth observation user case studies using qualitative research methods.
Eyes on Earth Episode 29 – Tracking Landscape Change with LCMAP
The U.S. Geological Survey took a bold step toward documenting change across the landscape with the launch of the first Landsat satellite in 1972. Since then, it’s collected nearly five decades of imagery. But it takes more than just imagery to understand change. It takes time, effort—and serious computing horsepower.
The U.S. Geological Survey took a bold step toward documenting change across the landscape with the launch of the first Landsat satellite in 1972. Since then, it’s collected nearly five decades of imagery. But it takes more than just imagery to understand change. It takes time, effort—and serious computing horsepower.
Landsat in Action - The Accuracy of Landsat with Jeff Masek
Landsat 9 Project Scientist Jeff Masek discusses the ways Landsat data is used and how important it is to have high quality data.
Landsat 9 Project Scientist Jeff Masek discusses the ways Landsat data is used and how important it is to have high quality data.
Related Content
Listen to podcasts spotlighting Landsat's contributions.
A Legacy Continues with Landsat 9 Launch
Landsat 9 is a partnership between NASA and USGS. The satellite will continue the Landsat program’s mission to capture repeat snapshots of Earth to monitor, understand and manage natural resources.
Landsat 9 is a partnership between NASA and USGS. The satellite will continue the Landsat program’s mission to capture repeat snapshots of Earth to monitor, understand and manage natural resources.
Eyes on Earth Episode 54 - National Land Cover Database 2019
The National Land Cover Database, or NLCD, was the first and remains the most well-known set of satellite-based land cover mapping products released by EROS. It sorts the each 30-by-30-meter plot of land in the United States into a land cover class, such as cropland, pasture, high-intensity developed, deciduous forest, and the like.
The National Land Cover Database, or NLCD, was the first and remains the most well-known set of satellite-based land cover mapping products released by EROS. It sorts the each 30-by-30-meter plot of land in the United States into a land cover class, such as cropland, pasture, high-intensity developed, deciduous forest, and the like.
Eyes on Earth Episode 44 – Landsat Water Atlas
Dr. Alan Belward has spent a lot of time thinking about the planet’s surface water. The former Landsat Science Team member uses satellite data to track changes to lakes, rivers, and streams, and recently published a book that uses Landsat data to tell some of those stories.
Dr. Alan Belward has spent a lot of time thinking about the planet’s surface water. The former Landsat Science Team member uses satellite data to track changes to lakes, rivers, and streams, and recently published a book that uses Landsat data to tell some of those stories.
Earth Observation Case Study: Landsat to Map Ag. Yields and Irrigation
Social scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Fort Collins Science Center – in collaboration with the USGS National Land Imaging Program – conduct Earth observation user case studies using qualitative research methods.
Social scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Fort Collins Science Center – in collaboration with the USGS National Land Imaging Program – conduct Earth observation user case studies using qualitative research methods.
Eyes on Earth Episode 29 – Tracking Landscape Change with LCMAP
The U.S. Geological Survey took a bold step toward documenting change across the landscape with the launch of the first Landsat satellite in 1972. Since then, it’s collected nearly five decades of imagery. But it takes more than just imagery to understand change. It takes time, effort—and serious computing horsepower.
The U.S. Geological Survey took a bold step toward documenting change across the landscape with the launch of the first Landsat satellite in 1972. Since then, it’s collected nearly five decades of imagery. But it takes more than just imagery to understand change. It takes time, effort—and serious computing horsepower.
Landsat in Action - The Accuracy of Landsat with Jeff Masek
Landsat 9 Project Scientist Jeff Masek discusses the ways Landsat data is used and how important it is to have high quality data.
Landsat 9 Project Scientist Jeff Masek discusses the ways Landsat data is used and how important it is to have high quality data.