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 »

“The quality of the Landsat 8 images is simply amazing!”


— Amaury Dehecq, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab , Dec 12, 2016
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“Landsat, now one of the largest and most powerful tranches of Earth-science data, is an invaluable scientific resource.”


— Robinson Meyer , Apr 11, 2019
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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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“We are looking forward to new exciting data to complement Landsat observations and to collaborative research—especially because ESA followed USGS in its open data policy.”


— Garik Gutman, NASA Land Use / Land Cover Change program manager , Jun 30, 2015
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“It is undeniable that having access to long-term satellite data has allowed ecologists and environmental managers to increase their understanding of the natural world, to make predictions about how this world might transform and to design efficient mitigation and adaptation strategies in the face of global environmental change.”


— Nathalie Pettorelli, Zoological Society of London , Jun 10, 2015
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“I am a big fan of Landsat 8 satellite images as a resource when making maps.”


— Tom Patterson, National Park Service cartographer , Jun 13, 2019
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“One of the things we like about the [Landsat] satellite is that as it orbits the Earth it is calibrated consistently so we have a globally constant picture that we can make comparisons—apples to apples—of what’s happening. We can drill down to countries, even parks, and say this is what is happening at a local scale. That is another really powerful part of this big data story.”


— Matt Hansen , Oct 21, 2015
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“The advent of Landsat data enabled an unparalleled increase in our understanding of the Earth system.”


— Randolph Wynne, Landsat Science Team , Dec 21, 2014
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“This portal harnesses more than 37,000 images from Landsat archives, dating back to the early 1970s, to track changes in outlet glaciers over time.”


— M. Scheinert Scheinert, Ralf Rosenau, and Benjamin Ebermann , Dec 29, 2016
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“We show governments across the world that it makes financial sense to release broadly and openly the data that the taxpayer has already paid for. It will build your economy, it is certainly good for transparent government and, it is a boon for capacity building and education.”


— Barb Ryan, Secretariat Director of the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO) , Feb 7, 2017
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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 like to think about Landsat as being, for this particular problem, sort of the sweet spot—the perfect asset. We found Landsat was really good at mapping the bulk of biomass for this particular test area we were looking at.”


— Michael Sayers, Research Scientist, Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI), on mapping submerged aquatic vegetation in the Great Lakes , Jul 9, 2021
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“When we showed historical Landsat and more recent high resolution images to communities and shared our analysis, people realized what they’d lost over time and wanted to engage in conversations about how to bring the forests back.”


— Lilian Pintea, VP of conservation science, Jane Goodall Institute , Sep 29, 2015
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“I saw more use of Landsat as the gold standard of calibration than I’ve ever seen in the past. Most of the commercial vendors I heard from called out Landsat as the gold standard. Even the European vendors called out Landsat, which I thought was unique.”


— Greg Stensaas, manager of the Requirements, Capabilities and Analysis for Earth Observation (RCA-EO) project and JACIE coordinator for EROS , Oct 5, 2018
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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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“Having a carefully calibrated multi-satellite record allows us to ensure that we are recording changes to the Earth, and not simply changes in the instrument response. The more detailed observations from Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 allow these subtle changes to be teased out of the long-term record unambiguously.”


— Jeff Masek, Landsat 9 Project Scientist (NASA) , Nov 4, 2021
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“Landsat, with its five-decade record of robust collection, calibration and archiving, and its longstanding service as a global reference to cross-calibrate other missions, improves not only the quality of those systems but the overall quality of the global ‘system of systems’.”


— Kevin Gallagher, Associate Director for Core Science Systems, USGS , Dec 1, 2022
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“Landsat is providing better [surface] water data—not just at the state level or nationally, but globally”


— via Alan Belward, EU Commission JRC , Jul 8, 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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“Landsat is proof-positive of the value of Earth observation data, and particularly open access to Earth observation data.”


— Jay Neuner , Oct 4, 2018
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“At Google, we use Landsat data on a daily basis.”


— Chris Herwig, Google Earth and Earth Engine , Jul 28, 2017
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“By combining the 34-year record provided by Landsat [30 m] with climate data, we can now quantify relations between water availability and vegetation dynamics in ways that were not previously possible.”


— Dr. Christine Albano, ecohydrologist at the Desert Research Institute , Dec 13, 2019
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“It’s hard to quantify the value of Landsat, but the last time USGS tried in 2017 they estimated that it produces $3.45B in value to society annually. There’s a second important conclusion buried in that study: if they tried charging for the data, that value would likely vanish in the blink of an eye.”


— Joe Morrison , May 23, 2022
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“Remote sensing with satellites such as Landsat and sensors such as MODIS allows scientists to conduct a range of studies they wouldn’t otherwise be able to.”


— Karl Flessa, co-chief scientist of the Minute 319 Science Team , Dec 17, 2014
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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.