The LANDSAT Program is the longest running enterprise for acquisition of imagery of the earth from space. The LANDSAT 1 satellite was launched in 1972; the most recent, LANDSAT 7, was launched in 1999. The instruments on the LANDSAT satellites have acquired millions of images, which form a unique resource for applications in agriculture, geology, forestry, regional planning, education, mapping and global change research.

Geoimage is the largest value added reseller of LANDSAT data in Australia. We search, source and process LANDSAT imagery from all of the ground receiving stations and have an extensive archive of LANDSAT imagery in our own right. As an official USGS Business Partner, Geoimage has priority access to the world's largest LANDSAT archive.

MSS

The Multispectral Scanner (MSS) was the main sensor on LANDSATs 1-3. The MSS sensor had a spatial resolution of 56m x 79m and collected imagery in 4 spectral bands (from visible green to near infrared) with a range of 128 intensity levels. The MSS sensor became subsidiary to the Thematic Mapper sensor on  LANDSATs 4 and 5 and there was no MSS instrument planned for LANDSATs 6 and 7. This meant that the acquisition of MSS was due to cease with the demise of LANDSAT 5, and for technical reasons the MSS instrument was turned off in December 1997.

TM

The Thematic Mapper (TM) scanner, which first appeared on LANDSAT 4 in 1982, was designed to provide improved spectral and spatial resolution over the MSS instrument. The use of more sensitive detectors, better optics and a lower orbit enabled the collection of radiation in 7 spectral bands, with a spatial resolution of 30m, and with a data range of 256 intensity levels. The wavelengths of sensors on the MSS instrument were specifically selected for agricultural purposes, i.e. to highlight vegetation differences. For TM these broad vegetation bands were subdivided to provide more discrimination, and an additional sensor was included to provide geological information.

ETM+

May 2003: An instrument anomaly onboard Landsat 7 was discovered on May 31,2003 - click here for details.

Launched on 15 April 1999, LANDSAT 7 is the newest satellite in the series. LANDSAT 7 carries the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) sensor, which replicates the capabilities of the highly successful Thematic Mapper instruments on LANDSATs 4 and 5. The ETM+ also includes new features that make it a more versatile and efficient instrument for global change studies, land cover monitoring and assessment, and large area mapping than its design forebears. The primary new features are:

Standard processing of LANDSAT 7 by Geoimage includes merging the multispectral and panchromatic datasets to produce 15m multispectral imagery.

Our LANDSAT flyer (342k) has general information on the LANDSAT system - please contact us for further details and a no obligation quote.

LANDSAT imagery © AUSLIG