Landsat Next Defined

Landsat Next Defined

June 29, 2023

Landsat Next is on the horizon—the new mission will not only ensure continuity of the longest space-based record of Earth’s land surface, it will fundamentally transform the breadth and depth of actionable information freely available to end users. Take a look at the new capabilities that will define the next Landsat mission.

Read More »
Landsat Next Defined

Landsat Next Defined

June 29, 2023

Landsat Next is on the horizon—the new mission will not only ensure continuity of the longest space-based record of Earth’s land surface, it will fundamentally transform the breadth and depth of actionable information freely available to end users. Take a look at the new capabilities that will define the next Landsat mission.

Read More »

“I really believe that Landsat data made a change in how we perceive global change. All of the things we have done so far would not have been possible without the unique Landsat dataset”


— Dr. Patrick Hostert, Geomatics Lab, Humboldt University , Apr 18, 2018
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“Satellites like those in the the Landsat program – which celebrates its 50th anniversary on July 23, 2022 – have become crucial for pinpointing urban risks so cities can prepare for and respond to extreme heat, a top weather-related killer.”


— Daniel P. Johnson, Associate Professor of Geography, IUPUI , Jun 14, 2022
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“NASA’s comprehensive study of Earth has provided much of the underlying understanding of current trends in the planet’s climate – including definitive measurements of rising sea levels, glacier retreat, ice sheet changes and the decline in the volume of the Arctic sea ice cap. Our satellites have provided global, long-term views of plant life on land and in the ocean. And our supercomputing power is allowing us to better understand how all the parts of the Earth system work together and he…


— Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator , Dec 4, 2015
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“I don’t think there’s any question about how important and how valuable MSS is.”


— Dr. Warren Cohen, U.S. Forest Service, Landsat Science Team former member , Apr 28, 2020
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“From now on, we’re going to be able to track all of the different types of changes in glaciers – there’s so much science to extract from the data.”


— Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, talking about the Landsat 8-based GoLIVE project , Dec 12, 2016
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“Landsat data are essential for monitoring long-term changes of Earth’s ecosystems.”


— Nicholas Murray, ecologist at James Cook University , Aug 6, 2022
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“This global census can help identify other lakes in need of monitoring or remediation, Dr. Shugar said. ‘We hope that it allows governments to see where the hot spots might be for glacial lakes growing in the future.'”


— Dan Shugar, glaciologist at the University of Calgary, speaking of his Landsat-based glacial lake inventory , Oct 2, 2020
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“When the archive was opened, there were more Landsat images outside it than in it. Many images were retained by the global network of receiving stations. An effort to consolidate these has added more than 3 million images to the repository since 2010; agreements are in place for a further 2 million to be ingested.”


— Wulder & Coops , Sep 4, 2014
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“We cannot replace Landsat with Copernicus. In fact the programs complement each other. The world has been benefitting from Landsat data for the past 40 years now. It is really a unique and extremely valuable data source that has provided knowledge and understanding of the planet.”


— Josef Aschbacher, Director of EO Programs, European Space Agency , Oct 3, 2018
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“We are very excited to employ integrated Landsat and Sentinel-2 data. The combined observations provide an unprecedented capability and, we expect, an unprecedented record of global land change.”


— Matt Hansen, professor at the University of Maryland and OPERA project partner , Apr 18, 2023
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“This is an example of something government can do well: investing in infrastructure that broadly benefits society, and provides a stable platform for the development of businesses and economic activity. Landsat is the data equivalent of the interstate highway system, a public good that has spawned a thriving for-profit remote sensing industry in the US and beyond.”


— Kimbra Cutlip, SkyTruth , Oct 3, 2016
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“It is a game changer for people who want to know the impact of a management action on particular piece of land, or how a dam affected the downstream area.”


— Dr. Virginia Burkett, Chief Scientist, Climate and Land Use Change (CLU), USGS, describing the new Landsat Analysis Ready Data , May 11, 2018
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“Since late 2008, when Landsat data was made available to all users free of charge, over 22 million Landsat scenes have been downloaded through the USGS-EROS website—and the rate of downloads is still increasing.”


— USGS press release , Jan 14, 2015
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“We recognize the essential role forests play in the long-term health of our planet, in contributing to sustainable development, and in meeting our shared goal of avoiding dangerous climate change. More than a billion people depend directly on forests for their livelihoods, and the remaining six billion of us depend on forests for a variety of economic, social, and environmental benefits such as the rainfall, biodiversity, pollinators, carbon storage, and clean water they provide. Forests a…


— Leaders of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, France, Gabon, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Liberia, Mexico, Norway, Peru, United Kingdom, and the United States , Dec 1, 2015
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“Work has begun on the next mission, Landsat 9, with launch scheduled for late 2020. Plans for the next generation of Landsat are also underway, with a series of studies leading to a decision on the Landsat 10 and beyond architecture in 2018.”


— Timothy Newman, USGS Land Remote Sensing Program Coordinator , Jul 18, 2016
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“Landsat has been historically the gold standard reference for calibration of many different missions across the whole globe. The radiometric quality for Landsat Next will be at least as good as any previous Landsat. So, we will maintain that standard for calibration and referencing for all missions.”


— Jim Pontius, Landsat Next Project Manager, NASA , Jun 29, 2023
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“Giant kelp forests are especially sensitive to environmental changes and have a history of undergoing abrupt, dramatic declines and increases in response to a variety of climatic and human-induced factors. The application of our remote sensing methods to the long-term (continuous since 1984), high frequency (~ once per month) global coverage of Landsat imagery is providing a unique opportunity for studying these dynamics over spatial and temporal scales that were previously impossible to e…


— Santa Barbara Coastal Long Term Ecological Research , Oct 15, 2014
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“The Landsat program doesn’t produce images like the ones of astronauts playing golf on the moon nor geologists scaling an erupting volcano, but it has created one of the most important scientific repositories of data ever made.”


— Robinson Meyer , Apr 16, 2015
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“We’ve got this data of every field, of every country…. the archive is just going to continue to yield good information, good science, better management, reduce costs. It’s incredible.”


— John Schott, Rochester Institute of Technology, on the Landsat archive , Jan 9, 2018
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“The power of Landsat is that you can travel through time and you can travel through space and tell these really rich stories to help the greater good.”


— Kate Fickas, remote sensing ecologist, and USGS Mendenhall Fellow , Feb 8, 2022
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“The Landsat series of satellites is a cornerstone of our Earth observing capability. The world relies on Landsat data to detect and measure land cover/land use change, the health of ecosystems, and water availability.”


— Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator , Mar 4, 2015
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“Now that the entire Landsat archive is freely available it has become economically feasible to monitor disturbance over large areas using satellite time series.”


— Todd Schroeder, USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station , Dec 19, 2014
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“Landsat data is assimilated into our estimation system and therefore provides the key constraint on our snowpack estimates. Without Landsat data this analysis would have to be done in a modeling context or using limited in situ data and therefore would have significantly higher uncertainties.”


— Steve Margulis, UCLA , Dec 15, 2016
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“Understanding how this planet works and helping people make better, informed decisions is really what we’re about in Earth Science.”


— Karen St. Germain, director of NASA's Earth Science Division , Nov 21, 2022
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ABOUT LANDSAT

The NASA/USGS Landsat Program provides the longest continuous space-based record of Earth’s land in existence. Landsat data give us information essential for making informed decisions about Earth’s resources and environment.