The Landsat 8 Ground System includes all of the ground-based assets needed to operate the Landsat 8 observatory. The primary components of the Ground System are the Mission Operations Element, Collection Activity Planning Element, Ground Network Element, and the Data Processing and Archive System.
Excerpt: LDCM Ground System
The LDCM (Landsat 8) ground system will perform two main functions. The first will be to command and control the LDCM observatory in orbit. The second will be to manage the data transmitted from the observatory. The daily software command loads that control the observatory will originate within the LDCM Mission Operations Center (MOC) at GSFC and will be transmitted to the observatory from the antenna of the LDCM Ground Network Element (GNE). The data transmitted by the observatory will be received by the GNE and then sent to the Data Processing and Archive System (DPAS) at EROS. The DPAS will archive the data and produce the LDCM data products distributed for science and applications. USGS manages ground system development and USGS successfully conducted a Ground System critical design review in March 2010.
Excerpted from Remote Sensing of Environment 122, James R. Irons, John L. Dwyer, and Julia A. Barsi , The next Landsat satellite: The Landsat Data Continuity Mission, 11-21, Copyright 2012, doi:10.1016/j.rse.2011.08.026, with permission from Elsevier
Courtesy of the journal Remote Sensing of the Environment
Read More:
+ Landsat 8 Mission Operations Center (MOC)
+ Landsat 8 Data Processing and Archive System (DPAS)
