Abstract

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) is a partnership formed between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to place the next Landsat satellite in orbit in January 2013. The Landsat era that began in 1972 will become a nearly 41-year global land record with the successful launch and operation of the LDCM. The LDCM will continue the acquisition, archiving, and distribution of multispectral imagery affording global, synoptic, and repetitive coverage of the Earth’s land surfaces at a scale where natural and human-induced changes can be detected, differentiated, characterized, and monitored over time.

The mission objectives of the LDCM are to (1) collect and archive medium resolution (30-meter spatial resolution) multispectral image data affording seasonal coverage of the global landmasses for a period of no less than 5 years; (2) ensure that LDCM data are sufficiently consistent with data from the earlier Landsat missions in terms of acquisition geometry, calibration, coverage characteristics, spectral characteristics, output product quality, and data availability to permit studies of landcover and land-use change over time; and (3) distribute LDCM data products to the general public on a nondiscriminatory basis at no cost to the user.

Revised July 18, 2012

First posted May 25, 2012