EO4WIND
Earth Observation for
Renewable Wind Energy

Landsat-8/9

Satellite Description

Landsat-8 was launched in 2013 while Landsat-9 was launched in 2021. Landsat-8 possesses 2 primary science payloads, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS). These provide the satellite with slightly different spectral characteristics when compared to Landsat-7. Landsat-8 has a total of 11 bands with additional coastal/aerosol and cirrus 30 m bands, and two 100 m TIR bands as opposed to a single 60 m TIR band. Landsat-8 acquires 150 more scenes per day than Landsat-7. Landsat-9 operates very similarly with small improvements made to its OLI-2 and TIR-2 instruments.

Observation Scenario Sensor Characteristics Spatial Resolution Temporal Resolution Data Products Archive Availability Data Continuity

• Swath width: 185 km

• Orbit: Sun-synchronous

• Inclination: 98.2°

• Altitude: 705 km

• Lifetime: 5 years

11 spectral bands:

  • 1 x panchromatic
  • 2 x thermal
  • 8 x visible/NIR/SWIR

• Panchromatic (band 8): 15 m

• Thermal (bands 10 and 11): 100 m

• All other bands: 30 m

16 days (8 days with 2 satellites).

• Level-1: Landsat Collection 2 Tier 1 Level-1 data is delivered as top of the atmosphere (TOA) reflectances that are radiometrically calibrated and geometrically corrected.

• Level-2: Landsat Collection 2 Tier 1 Level-2 data contains atmospherically corrected bottom of the atmosphere (BOA) reflectances.

Data is freely available:

Landsat Next is a 3-satellite constellation planed for launch in 2030/2031 with improvements including a 6-day repeat, 26 spectral bands and spatial resolution of 10 – 20 m for some bands.