CEOS EO HANDBOOK – MISSION SUMMARY - Landsat 8 -
Full Name Landsat 8
aka L8, Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), Landsat-8
Status Operational (extended)
Mission Agencies USGS, NASA Launch Date 11 Feb 2013
Mission Links mission site | mission site | data access portal | data access portal EOL Date Feb 2028
EO Portal Info NORAD Catalog # 39084 (TLE)
International Designator 2013-008A
Orbit Type Sun-synchronous Orbit Period 98.9 minutes
Orbit Sense Descending Orbit Inclination 98.2 deg
Orbit Altitude 705 km Orbit Longitude
Orbit LST 10:11 Repeat Cycle 16 days
Objectives and Applications 5-year mission design life with at least 10 years of consumables. Earth resources, land surface, environmental monitoring, agriculture and forestry, disaster monitoring and assessment, ice and snow cover.
Mission Measurements
CategoryParameterInstrument(s)
AtmosphereCloud type, amount and cloud top temperature OLI, TIRS
Radiation budget OLI, TIRS
LandAlbedo and reflectance OLI, TIRS
Vegetation OLI, TIRS
Surface temperature (land) OLI, TIRS
Multi-purpose imagery (land) OLI, TIRS
Inland Waters OLI, TIRS
OceanOcean colour/biology OLI
Ocean topography/currents OLI
Multi-purpose imagery (ocean) OLI
Snow & IceSnow cover, edge and depth OLI, TIRS
Sea ice cover, edge and thickness OLI, TIRS
Mission Instruments
OLI - Operational Land Imager
TIRS - Thermal Infrared Sensor
Featured Datasets
More Datasets
Collection 2
Dec-2020
CARD4L Landsat Collection 2 marks the second major reprocessing effort on the Landsat archive by the USGS that results in several data product improvements that harness recent advancements in data processing, algorithm development, and data access and distribution capabilities. Read more

GA Landsat Collection 3
Jul-2019



The United States Geological Survey's (USGS) Landsat satellite program has been capturing images of the Australian continent for more than thirty years. DEA takes the hundreds of thousands of images, prepares them for Australian conditions, and makes adjustments to correct inconsistencies caused by changes in the atmosphere each time an image is captured (i.e. absence or presence of cloud cover), so that the data can be analysed to provide information about our changing continent. This corrected data set is known as Landsat Surface Reflectance, and it forms the basis for many of the other information products produced by DEA. Products derived from the surface reflectance collection include Fractional Cover, Water Observations from Space, the Intertidal Extents Model, and High and Low Tide Composites. Read more

Landsat Collection 1
Sep-2016
Landsat Collection 1 consists of Level-1 data products generated from Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI)/Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS), Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), Landsat 4-5 Thematic Mapper (TM)*, and Landsat 1-5 Multispectral Scanner (MSS) instruments. Read more

Landsat 8 OLI-TIRS European Coverage
Jan-2013



The Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared Scanner (TIRS) are the two instruments carried on board Landsat-8. The OLI provides two new spectral bands in respect to the Landsat-7 ETM+ instrument, one tailored especially for detecting cirrus clouds and the other for coastal zone observations, and the TIRS collects data for two more narrow thermal bands. The nominal schedules expect the collection of at least 740 OLI and TIRS scenes per day, where each scene is a digital image covering a 185 × 180 km surface area. The collection composed of Level 1 products from Collection 1, from the beginning of the mission up to 31/12/2021, and access is provided through the ESA TPM scheme. Read more

Landsat 8 Collection 2 European Coverage
Jan-2013



The Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared Scanner (TIRS) are the two instruments carried on board Landsat-8. The OLI provides two new spectral bands in respect to the Landsat-7 ETM+ instrument, one tailored especially for detecting cirrus clouds and the other for coastal zone observations, and the TIRS collects data for two more narrow thermal bands. The nominal schedules expect the collection of at least 740 OLI and TIRS scenes per day, where each scene is a digital image covering a 185 × 180 km surface area. The collection composed of of Level 1 and Level 2 products from Collection 2, and access is provided through the ESA TPM scheme. Read more

OpenSearch Datasets Selected IDN OpenSearch Results (search all 127 )
ABoVE: Alder Shrub Cover and Soil Properties, Alaska, 2019, V2
ABoVE: Burn Severity of Soil Organic Matter, Northwest Territories, Canada, 2014-2015
ABoVE: Distribution Maps of Wildland Fire Fuel Components across Alaskan Tundra, 2015
ABoVE: Lake Growing Season Green Surface Reflectance Trends, AK and Canada, 1984-2019
ABoVE: Landsat Tundra Greenness and Summer Air Temperatures, Arctic Tundra, 1985-2016
ABoVE: Landsat Vegetation Greenness Trends, Boreal Forest Biome, 1985-2019
ABoVE: Landsat-derived Burn Scar dNBR across Alaska and Canada, 1985-2015
ABoVE: River Ice Breakup and Freeze-up Stages, Yukon River Basin, Alaska, 1972-2016
ABoVE: Riverbank Erosion and Vegetation Changes, Yukon River Basin, Alaska, 1984-2017
ABoVE: Tree Canopy Cover and Stand Age from Landsat, Boreal Forest Biome, 1984-2020

Selected FedEO OpenSearch Results (view all 17 results: browser , table )
Landsat8 collection (SENTINEL Hub)
Landsat 8 Collection 2 European Coverage
ESA Lakes Climate Change Initiative (Lakes_cci): Lake products, Version 2.1
ESA Lakes Climate Change Initiative (Lakes_cci): Lake products, Version 1.1
CLIMATE APPLICATIONS: The Landsat land surface temperature products are being developed in response ...
Landsat Collection 2 - Level-2 - Data Cube - LCF 16 days
Landsat Image Mosaic of Brazilian Amazon Biome - 3 Months
Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) Glacier database (glims.org), Randolph Glacier Inven...
Landsat Level2A images (Theia)
Landsat-8 Collection (EO IPT.PL)

Want to explore more? Read about FedEO by ESA or click here to search FedEO or CMR OpenSearch by NASA