Skip Navigation Bar
NASA Logo - Goddard Space Flight Center + NASA Homepage
+ Goddard Homepage
NASA Home Page
Landsat Data Continuity Mission

Spacecraft & Instruments

Operational Land Imager
NASA has selected Ball Aerospace and Technologies to develop the Operational Land Imager instrument for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). The instrument will capture images in the visible and near-infrared spectra.


Quick Facts
+ Accurate spectral and spatial information
+ Frequent synoptic views of the Earth
+ Calibrated to a national standard over time
+ Precise geo-referenced data for mapping and monitoring
+ Scaleable geospatial information across global, hemispheric,
   continental, regional, and local geographies


LDCM Requirements

The decree for data continuity is easily discernable from the LDCM requirements which include: a minimum field of view of 185-km cross-track swath width at the equator, spectral bands similar to those of the Landsat 7 mission (see table below), a pixel ground sampling distance of between 28 and 30 m for all spectral bands except the panchromatic band (pixel size between 14 and 15 m). The nominal spacecraft altitude will be 705 km. Absolute geodetic accuracy of 65 m and relative geodetic accuracy of 25 m (excluding terrain effects), and a geometric accuracy of 12 m or better (including compensation for terrain effects) are required.

Band Number Band Name Min. Lower Band Edge (nm) Max. Upper Band Edge (nm) Ground Sampling Distance (m)
1 Coastal/Aerosol 433 453 28–30
2 Blue 450 515 28–30
3 Green 525 600 28–30
4 Red 630 680 28–30
5 NIR 845 885 28–30
6 SWIR 1 1560 1660 28–30
7 SWIR 2 2100 2300 28–30
8 Panchromatic 500 680 14–15
9 Cirrus 1360 1390 28–30

LDCM's OLI Instrument
Design concept of LDCM's Operational Land Imager instrument.
Image credit: Ball Aerospace & Technology Corp.
















FirstGov logo+ Privacy Policy and Important NoticesNASA logo

Curator: Jennifer Brill
NASA Official: Bill Ochs