For over forty years, Landsat has quietly however persistently been taking pictures of the surface of the Earth, amassing a formidable collection of information about our planet. This month, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) introduced that the trouble would proceed to span the generations, by transferring forward with the event and deliberate launch of LandSat 9 in 2023.
Images: 1) NASA’s Operation IceBridge found this large crack across the Pine Island Glacier. It is deep and vast enough to nearly engulf the Statue of Liberty, being 820 toes (~250 meters) across at its widest point and about 200 toes (~61 meters) at its deepest (NASA’s Operation IceBridge). 2) NASA’s Michael Studinger aboard the IceBridge DC-8 plane that surveyed the glacier. The realm cracking off may become an iceberg the scale of all of New York City, about 310 sq. miles (800 sq. km) (NASA’s Operation IceBridge).
Originally referred to as Earth Resources Expertise Satellite Program, the Landsat Program was inspired by photographs of Earth taken by Apollo Moon missions within the 1960’s. While climate satellites had been already monitoring Earth’s ambiance, they weren’t designed to collect terrain data. The specific intent of the Landsat Program was to make use of orbiting spacecraft to review and monitor the earth’s landmasses. The Mercury and Gemini initiatives had previously proven the feasibility of the project, and the usefulness of orbital pictures to earth scientists.
Program Landsat merupakan tertua dalam program observasi bumi. Landsat dimulai tahun 1972 dengan satelit Landsat-1 yang membawa sensor MSS multispektral. Setelah tahun 1982, Thematic Mapper TM ditempatkan pada sensor MSS. MSS dan TM merupakan whiskbroom scanners. Pada April 1999 Landsat-7 diluncurkan dengan membawa ETM+scanner. Saat ini, hanya Landsat-5 dan 7 sedang beroperasi.
Landsat-1 outlived its design life by five years, working until January 1978. This exceeded all expectations, as did the standard, and affect of the information collected, 300,000 images of the earth’s surface. Landsat-2 and Landsat-3 had been both nonetheless thought-about experimental initiatives when launched in 1975 and 1978 respectively. Nonetheless, in 1979, as a result of program’s technical and scientific success, Operational standing was declared, and operational accountability was moved from NASA to NOAA.
