Landsat: Sustaining earth observations beyond Landsat 8

The Landsat series of Earth-observing satellites began 41-years ago as a partnership between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) of the Department of the Interior (DOI) and The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). For the past 41 years, Landsat satellites and associated U.S. Government ground processing, distribution, and archiving systems have acquired and made available global, moderate-resolution, multispectral measurements of land and coastal regions, providing humankind’s longest record of our planet from space. Landsat information is truly a national asset, providing an important and unique capability that benefits abroad community, including Federal, state, and local governments; globalchange science; academia, and the private sector.