Landsat 8

The Landsat Missions are comprised of Earth-observing operational satellites that carry remote sensors to collect data and image our planet as a part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Land Imaging (NLI) Program. The first Landsat 1 satellite was launched in July 1972. 

Landsat 8 was launched on February 11, 2013. The satellite carries the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) instruments. The OLI measures the visible, near infrared, and shortwave infrared portions (VNIR, NIR, and SWIR) of the spectrum. The TIRS measures land surface temperature in two thermal bands with a new technology that applies quantum physics to detect heat. Landsat 8 images have 15-meter panchromatic and 30-meter multi-spectral spatial resolutions along a 185 km swath. In other words, similarly to Sentinel-2 satellite from ESA, Landsat 8 is an optical resolution satellite with lower spatial resolution. On the other hand, Landsat 8’s Thermal Infrared Sensor is an advantage of USGS satellite.  

Video. Landsat 8 introduction (source: NASA)

Orbit facts: 

  • Orbits the Earth in a sun-synchronous, near-polar orbit (98.2 degrees inclination) 

  • Achieved an altitude of 705 km 

  • Completes one Earth orbit every 99 minutes 

  • Has a 16-day repeat cycle with an equatorial crossing time of 10:00 +/- 15 minutes 

  • Acquires about 740 scenes a day on the Worldwide Reference System-2 (WRS-2) path/row system, with a swath overlap (or sidelap) varying from 7 percent at the equator to a maximum of approximately 85 percent at extreme latitudes. 

Landsat 8 has nine spectral bands, including a pan band: 

  • Band 1: Coastal Aerosol (0.43 - 0.45 µm) 30 m 

  • Band 2: Blue (0.450 - 0.51 µm) 30 m 

  • Band 3: Green (0.53 - 0.59 µm) 30 m 

  • Band 4: Red (0.64 - 0.67 µm) 30 m 

  • Band 5:Near-Infrared (0.85 - 0.88 µm) 30 m 

  • Band 6:SWIR 1 (1.57 - 1.65 µm) 30 m 

  • Band 7:SWIR 2 (2.11 - 2.29 µm) 30 m 

  • Band 8: Panchromatic (PAN) (0.50 - 0.68 µm) 15 m 

  • Band 9: Cirrus (1.36 - 1.38 µm) 30 m 

Two spectral bands of Thermal Infrared Sensor: 

  • Band 10: TIRS 1 (10.6 - 11.19 µm) 100 m 

  • Band 11: TIRS 2 (11.5 - 12.51 µm) 100 m 

ESTHub web map service for viewing Landsat 8 data in the Estonian area

https://teenus.maaamet.ee/ows/wms-landsat-8-rgb?date=YYYY-MM-DD

Replace the letters with numbers as follows: YYYY – year, MM – month, and DD – day.


Last update: 28.05.2025 11:55
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