Landsat Thematic Mapper

• The first Landsat (or Earth Observation Satellite) launched  in 1972.  The main instrument on the early Landsats 1 to 5 was the MSS (Multi-spectral scanner) with 4 or 5 bands and about 75 m pixel resolution; USGS now distributes it with 60 m pixels. These landsat also had a RBV system.
• Landsat 4, launched in 1982, was the first to carry the Thematic Mapper (TM).  It had a maximum resolution of 30 m, with 6 bands in the visible and near infrared, and a thermal IR band with 120 m resolution. The Landsat archive really starts with this satellite, and for most places in the world you can get usable imagery starting in the early or mid 1980's.  The TM was designed as a backup, but when the MSS died and NASA saw how good the TM was, they did not even try to bring back the MSS.
• Landsat 5, launched in 1984, provided data until 2013.  This long life, well beyond the design specification,  was the result of it experienceing no significant problems and the loss of Landsat 6 at launch, and the SLC failure of Landsat 7 in 2003 which degraded Landsat 7 performance.
• Landsat 6 (which failed to reach orbit in 1993) and 7 (launched in 1999) added the Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) which has a panchromatic band with 15 m resolution.  The thermal band has 60 m resolution, but is  now distributed with 30 m pixels to match the other bands.
• Landsat 8 launched in 2013 and had a number of improvements: more bands, better radiometric resolution.
• Landsat 9 launched in 2021 and the first data arrived in early 2022.  It has ever better radiometric resolution than Landsat 8

The value of Landsat lies in:

• A long archive of imagery monitoring the earth, which is especially valuable for creating land cover data.
• An intermediate scale, which despite the current availability of sub meter satellite imagery, is still valuable for many regional studies.
• The ability to display multiple bands to highlight vegetation, geology, or other features with true and false colors displays.

Landsat 7/8 bands

Landsat data

Finding scenes by path/row

Landsat file naming conventions

Landsat introductions on the web:

• https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/how-to-use-landsat-data/
• http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/FalseColor/
• https://www.mapbox.com/blog/processing-landsat-8/

Converting to TOA radiance or reflectance

• https://landsat.usgs.gov/using-usgs-landsat-8-product
• http://yceo.yale.edu/how-convert-landsat-dns-top-atmosphere-toa-reflectance

• you can choose whether to use the DN or the radiance or reflectances in computations

Last revision 2/22/2022