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.
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