landsat
TRANSCRIPT
LANDSAT 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Satellites and Their Specification
The Landsat celebrating Successful 40 Years.
The Landsat program is the longest running enterprise for acquisition of satellite
imagery of Earth. On July 23, 1972 the Earth Resources Technology Satellite was launched.
This was eventually renamed to Landsat. The most recent, Landsat 7, was launched on
April 15, 1999. The instruments on the Landsat satellites have acquired millions of images.
The images, archived in the United States and at Landsat receiving stations around the
world, are a unique resource for global change research and applications
in agriculture, cartography, geology, forestry, regional planning, surveillance, education
and national security. Landsat 7 data has eight spectral bands with spatial
resolutions ranging from 15 to 60 meters; the temporal resolution is 16 days.
General Features
LANDSAT 1 LANDSAT 2 LANDSAT 3 LANDSAT 4 LANDSAT 5 LANDSAT 6 LANDSAT 7
Launch Date July 23, 1972 January 22, 1975
March 5, 1978
July 16 , 1982 March 1, 1984 October 5, 1993
April 15, 1999
Status Expired, January 6,
1978
Expired, February 5,
1982
Expired, March 31, 1983
Decommissioned, June 15, 2001
TM still operational! MSS instrument decommissioned
lost at launch
Operational despite Scan Line Corrector (SLC) failure May 31, 2003
Sensors RBV, MSS RBV, MSS RBV, MSS TM, MSS TM, MSS ETM ETM+
Altitude 900 km 900 km 900 km 705 km 705 km 705 km
Inclination 99.2° 99.2° 99.2° 98.2° 98.2° 98.2°
Orbit polar, sun-synchronous
polar, sun-synchronous
polar, sun-synchronous
polar, sun-synchronous
polar, sun-synchronous
polar, sun-synchronous
Equatorial
Crossing Time
nominally 9:42 AM
mean local time
(descending node)
9:42 AM mean local time (descending node)
9:42 AM mean local
time (descending
node)
nominally 9:45 AM (± 15 min.) local time (descending
node)
9:45 AM (± 15 min.) local time (descending node)
10 AM (± 15 min.) local time
(descending node)
Period of
Revolution
103 minutes; ~14
orbits/day
103 minutes; ~14
orbits/day
103 minutes; ~14
orbits/day
99 minutes; ~14.5 orbits/day
99 minutes; ~14.5 orbits/day
99 minutes; ~14.5 orbits/day
Repeat
Coverage
18 days 18 days 18 days 16 days 16 days 16 days