Enhanced Landsat capturing all the Earth's land areas

Abstract

The latest in a series of Landsat terrestrial observatories was launched April 15 and for the first time the mission configuration captures the dream envisioned by Earth scientists more than a quarter century ago. Landsat 7 now has the capability and the operations strategy to dynamically monitor all of the Earth's land areas annually paving the way toward a better understanding of the terrestrial dynamics that result from natural stresses and human activities. Landsat's long term acquisition plan (LTAP) is an ambitious step forward for the satellite, which has been tracking the Earth's land areas since 1972 [Short et al., 1976]. NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey are jointly operating the mission.