Land Observation Satellites/Sensors

Landsat
The first satellite designed specifically to monitor the Earth's surface, Landsat-1, was launched by NASA
in 1972. Initially referred to as ERTS-1, (Earth Resources Technology Satellite), Landsat was designed as
an experiment to test the feasibility of collecting multi-spectral Earth observation data from an
unmanned satellite platform. Since that time, this highly successful program has collected an abundance
of data from around the world from several Landsat satellites

1972–1978 Landsat 1: MSS

1975–1982 Landsat 2: MSS

1978–1983 added thermal band but it failed Landsat 3: MSS

1982–2001* data downlink failed in 1993 Landsat 4: MSS, TM (7 bands)

1984–2012 (28 years, 10 months) Landsat 5: MSS, TM

failed launch, 1993 Landsat 6: MSS, ETM

1999–still operational Landsat 7: ETM+

Launch Feb. 11 2013 Landsat 8: ETM+

A number of sensors have been on board the Landsat series of satellites, including the Return
Beam Vidicon (RBV) camera systems, the MultiSpectral Scanner (MSS) systems, and the
Thematic Mapper (TM). The most popular instrument in the early days of Landsat was the
MultiSpectral Scanner (MSS) and later the Thematic Mapper (TM). Each of these sensors
collected data over a swath width of 185 km, with a full scene being defined as 185 km x 185
km.
The MSS senses the electromagnetic radiation from the Earth's surface in four spectral bands.
Each band has a spatial resolution of approximately 60 x 80 metres and a radiometric resolution
of 6 bits, or 64 digital numbers. Sensing is accomplished with a line scanning device using an

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oscillating mirror. Six scan lines are collected simultaneously with each west-to-east sweep of
the scanning mirror. The accompanying table outlines the spectral wavelength ranges for the
MSS.
Routine collection of MSS data ceased in 1992, as the use of TM data, starting on Landsat 4,
superseded the MSS. The TM sensor provides several improvements over the MSS sensor
including: higher spatial and radiometric resolution; finer spectral bands; seven as opposed to
four spectral bands; and an increase in the number of detectors per band (16 for the non-
thermal channels versus six for MSS). Sixteen scan lines are captured simultaneously for each
non-thermal spectral band (four for thermal band), using an oscillating mirror which scans
during both the forward (west-to-east) and reverse (east-to-west) sweeps of the scanning
mirror. This difference from the MSS increases the dwell time (see section 2.8) and improves
the geometric and radiometric integrity of the data. Spatial resolution of TM is 30 m for all but
the thermal infrared band which is 120 m. All channels are recorded over a range of 256 digital
numbers (8 bits). The accompanying table outlines the spectral resolution of the individual TM
bands and some useful applications of each.

Landsat 7 ETM+ bands and it’s uses

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Landsat 8
The two main sensors for Landsat 8 are the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared
Sensor (TIRS).
The Operational Land Imager (OLI) produces 9 spectral bands (Band 1 to 9) at 30, and 15-meter
resolution. Then, the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) consists of 2 thermal bands with a spatial
resolution of 100 meters.

SPOT
SPOT (Système Pour l'Observation de la Terre) is a series of Earth observation imaging satellites
designed and launched by CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales) of France, with support
from Sweden and Belgium. SPOT-1 was launched in 1986, with successors following every three
or four years. All satellites are in sun-synchronous, near-polar orbits at altitudes around 830 km
above the Earth, which results in orbit repetition every 26 days. They have equator crossing
times around 10:30 AM local solar time. SPOT was designed to be a commercial provider of
Earth observation data, and was the first satellite to use along-track, or pushbroom scanning
technology.

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The SPOT satellites each have twin high resolution visible (HRV) imaging systems, which can be
operated independently and simultaneously. Each HRV is capable of sensing either in a high
spatial resolution single-channel panchromatic (PLA) mode, or a coarser spatial resolution
three-channel multispectral (MLA) mode. Each along-track scanning HRV sensor consists of four
linear arrays of detectors: one 6000 element array for the panchromatic mode recording at a
spatial resolution of 10 m, and one 3000 element array for each of the three multispectral
bands, recording at 20 m spatial resolution. The swath width for both modes is 60 km at nadir.
The accompanying table illustrates the spectral characteristics of the two different modes.

The viewing angle of the sensors can be adjusted to look to either side of the satellite's vertical
(nadir) track, allowing offnadir viewing which increases the satellite's revisit capability. This
ability to point the sensors up to 27° from nadir, allows SPOT to view within a 950 km swath
and to revisit any location several times per week. As the sensors point away from nadir, the
swath varies from 60 to 80 km in width. This not only improves the ability to monitor specific
locations and increases the chances of obtaining cloud free scenes, but the off-nadir viewing
also provides the capability of acquiring imagery for stereoscopic coverage. By recording the
same area from two different angles, the imagery can be viewed and analyzed as a three
dimensional model, a technique of tremendous value for terrain interpretation, mapping, and
visual terrain simulations.

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This oblique viewing capability increases the revisit frequency of equatorial regions to three
days (seven times during the 26 day orbital cycle). Areas at a latitude of 45º can be imaged
more frequently (11 times in 26 days) due to the convergence or orbit paths towards the poles.
By pointing both HRV sensors to cover adjacent ground swaths at nadir, a swath of 117 km (3
km overlap between the two swaths) can be imaged. In this mode of operation, either
panchromatic or multispectral data can be collected, but not both simultaneously.

`SPOT has a number of benefits over other spaceborne optical sensors. Its fine spatial
resolution and pointable sensors are the primary reasons for its popularity. The three band
multispectral data are well suited to displaying as false-color images and the panchromatic
band can also be used to "sharpen" the spatial detail in the multispectral data. SPOT allows
applications requiring fine spatial detail (such as urban mapping) to be addressed while
retaining the cost and timeliness advantage of satellite data. The potential applications of SPOT
data are numerous. Applications requiring frequent monitoring (agriculture, forestry) are well
served by the SPOT sensors. The acquisition of stereoscopic imagery from SPOT has played an
important role in mapping applications and in the derivation of topographic information (Digital
Elevation Models - DEMs) from satellite data.

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IKONOS
IKONOS was the first commercial high resolution satellite to be placed into or-bit in space.
IKONOS is owned by SpaceImaging, a USA based Earth observation company.
IKONOS was launched in September 1999 and regular data ordering has been taking place since
March 2000. The OSA sensor onboard is based on the pushbroom principle and can
simultaneously take panchromatic and multispectral images. IKONOS delivers the highest
spatial resolution so far achieved by a civilian satellite. Apart from the high spatial resolution it
also has a high radiometric resolution using 11-bit quantization.

Mode Band Spectral band Resolution

Multispectral 1 0,45 - 0,52 µm 4x4m

2 0,52 - 0,60 µm 4x4m
3 0,63 - 0,69 µm 4x4m
4 0,76 - 0,90 µm 4x4m
Panchromatic Panchromatic 0,49 - 0,90 µm 1x1m

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QuickBird
The QuickBird produces sub-meter resolution Panchromatic and Multispectral imagery. The
data collection nominal swath width is 16.5 km at nadir, and areas of interest sizes are 16.5 km
x 16.5 km for a single area and 16.5 km x 115 km for a strip.

Mode Band Spectral band Resolution

Multispectral 1 0,45 - 0,52 µm 2.44 m

2 0,52 - 0,60 µm 2.44 m
3 0,63 - 0,69 µm 2.44 m
4 0,76 - 0,90 µm 2.44 m
Panchromatic Panchromatic 0,49 - 0,90 µm 61 cm

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 Remote Sensing Images
Remote sensing images are representations of parts of the earth surface as seen from
space. The images may be analog or digital. Aerial photographs are examples of analog
images while satellite images acquired using electronic sensors are examples of digital
images. A digital image is a two-dimensional array of pixels. Each pixel has an intensity value
(represented by a digital number) and a location address (referenced by its row and column
numbers)
Pixels: A digital image comprises of a two dimensional array of individual picture elements
called pixels arranged in columns and rows. Each pixel represents an area on the Earth's
surface. A pixel has an intensity value and a location address in the two dimensional image.

DIGITAL IMAGE A digital remotely sensed image is typically composed of picture elements
(pixels) located at the intersection of each row i and column j in each K bands of imagery.
Associated with each pixel is a number known as Digital Number (DN) or Brightness Value (BV),
that depicts the average radiance of a relatively small area within a scene (Fig. 1). A smaller
number indicates low average radiance from the area and the high number is an indicator of
high radiant properties of the area. The size of this area effects the reproduction of details
within the scene. As pixel size is reduced more scene detail is presented in digital
representation

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Multispectral Image : A multispectral image consists of several bands of data. For visual display,
each band of the image may be displayed one band at a time as a grey scale image, or in
combination of three bands at a time as a colour composite image.
Spectral band: Spectral band means a type of filter that can make only pass desired
wavelength. An EMR (Electro magnetic radiation) has vast range of energy consists of different
wavelength. Whenever any sensor can make filter a specific wavelength induced
energy/light then it called spectral band. Example, 0.4–0.5 micrometer called blue, 0.5–
0.6 micrometer called as green and 0.6–0.7 called as red. Apart from that 0.7 to 1
micrometer is called as infrared. Those are spectral bands. An image is a form of overlaying
of different bands.