Every Pixel - Landsat's Orbit
Detailed Description
Ever wonder how Landsat 8 orbits our planet? Here is an overview to explain this part of how we capture every pixel.
Details
Image Dimensions: 1280 x 720
Date Taken:
Length: 00:01:02
Location Taken: Sioux Falls, SD, US
Transcript
Traveling just above
earth’s surface,
Landsat 8 orbits in a
sun-synchronous path.
Meaning that as the craft
travels from the north
pole to the south, the
surface below is
in full sunlight.
At a speed of over
Landsat completes an
orbit every 99 minutes.
Aboard Landsat 8 are two
instruments for capturing
data: the Operational
Land Imager and the
Thermal InfraRed Sensor.
Both record land observations
across a 185 kilometer wide,
horizontal swath.
Over a 16 day cycle,
Landsat covers the entire
surface of earth, making
over 200 passes and traveling
more than 9 and a half million
kilometers in the process.