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September 29, 2026<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n NASA\u2019s Landsat 9<\/a> mission completed its five-year design life on Sunday, September 27, 2026. This critical mission milestone \u2014 54 years after the Landsat 1 mission launch \u2014 is a reminder of the enduring success of the Landsat program and its role in providing the longest continuous, space-based record of Earth\u2019s surface. As with all past missions, Landsat 9’s data<\/a> are essential for studying change over time to better understand our planet and make informed decisions about Earth\u2019s resources and environment.<\/p>\n The Landsat 9 mission is a joint partnership between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). NASA built and launched the satellite into orbit on <\/strong>September 27, 2021, then put the satellite through 10 months of extreme calibration, validation, and maneuvering tests to ensure that its instruments operated as planned while in orbit. Once this on-orbit checkout was completed, the USGS took over day-to-day operations and data management. Landsat 9 is also the first Landsat mission of the NASA\/USGS Sustainable Land Imaging (SLI<\/a>) Program, which was established to bring stability and predictability to spaceborne U.S. land imaging.<\/p>\n When Landsat 9 joined Landsat 8 in orbit in 2021, it doubled the data that researchers can use to study Earth. By combining the data from each satellite’s 16-day passes over the globe, this provides near-weekly observations of a given area, which improves agricultural reporting, disaster management, forestry and fire management, public health and safety monitoring, and water quality assessments.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Landsat data serves as the foundation for invaluable agricultural research tools, including the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) and the USDA’s Cropland Data Layer (CDL), which provide standardized information for decision-makers across the agricultural sector. Landsat 9’s accurate, reliable, timely data helps research teams monitor crop health and famine across the planet. This vital information is used by governments and humanitarian organizations to efficiently increase food productivity, reduce food insecurity, maximize resource efficiency, and strategically plan food aid where it is needed most. <\/p>\n Researchers use NASA’s Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) dataset, along with field observations and planting records, to capture the seasonal rhythm of agricultural fields. HLS combines imagery from NASA\/USGS Landsat 8 and 9 and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Sentinel-2A, B, and C satellites to provide observations every 1.6 days (the global average revisit rate) \u2014 frequent enough to track small changes in the lifecycle of crops.\u202fFor example, HLS enables a new, phenology-based algorithm to remotely detect winter cover crops<\/a> \u2014 crops that significantly improve regional soil and water conservation \u2014 with 75 to 80% accuracy. Scientists, farmers, and water managers measure water consumption at the individual field level and fine-tune watering for specific plants using Landsat 9’s thermal-infrared and optical data. <\/p>\n Additionally, agriculturalists have been able to maximize irrigation efficiency and support long-term sustainability across thousands of acres of vineyards<\/a> using Landsat 9’s thermal-infrared and optical data. These satellite observations also help researchers monitor the impacts of natural disasters on crops<\/a>, such as floods and droughts, and shape broader tools supporting water management across the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction reports that, on any given day on Earth, an average of 1.15 natural disasters strike, with 350 to 500 significant natural disasters<\/a> happening each year. And disasters are on the rise. Landsat 9 data are used to detect and monitor the impacts of natural disasters such as floods<\/a>, droughts, fires, landslides, crop losses, storms, and volcanic eruptions<\/a>. <\/p>\n To increase the survivability of these disasters, both land managers and disaster teams need fast, frequent, clear, reliable data about dynamic and long-term changes to our planet. From space, Landsat 9 gives us that picture in the form of near-real-time imaging. With Landsat 8 and 9 working in tandem, this drastically shortens the timeline between an event happening, assessing damage, and routing life-saving emergency responses to pinpointed locations. By providing critical before-and-after images, local authorities have the data they need for acute crises. These data are then used to build actionable frameworks for disaster management, specifically targeting prevention, zoning, and sensor-driven emergency responses. Using HLS data, users can track changes in vegetation across the globe at a 30-meter spatial resolution. By locating severe burn scars, land managers can predict and mitigate flash floods and mudslides before the rainy season hits.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Landsat 9 supports mapping the extent of disasters and impassible road networks so that managers can deploy and safely route humanitarian aid. Its Thermal Infrared Sensor, TIRS, traces moving lava flows and locates new thermal vents<\/a>, even when heavy volcanic gases obscure them from visibility, and at night, when there is no reflected sunlight to obscure subtle, low-level temperature variations. NASA’s new vegetation dataset \u2014 the Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis (OPERA) Land Surface Disturbance Alert (DIST-ALERT<\/a>) \u2014 detects vegetation cover loss at 30-meter pixels every two to four days. This high temporal frequency provides greater sensitivity to both large magnitude\/short duration (wildfires, floods, storm surges, landslides) and small magnitude\/long duration land changes (droughts, land clearing). Using Landsat 9 data, managers have tracked flood susceptibility in Somalia’s Juba\u2013Shabelle river basin<\/a> and in areas with poor drainage such as East Java<\/a>. <\/p>\n Landsat 9 also helps researchers track glacial meltwater increase and localized warming of moraines in remote, inaccessible mountain ridges, which helps predict and evacuate communities ahead of devastating and sudden floods. By modeling losses from hurricanes using Landsat observations, residents can better prepare when hurricanes threaten<\/a>.<\/p>\n \nAgriculture<\/h2>\n
Disaster Management<\/strong><\/h2>\n