![\"Planned](\"https:\/\/assets.science.nasa.gov\/dynamicimage\/assets\/science\/missions\/landsat\/landsat-10\/Stack%20Graphic%20-%20LNext.png?w=3840&h=2160&fit=clip&crop=faces%2Cfocalpoint\")
<\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\nMission Objectives<\/h2>\n
Under the Sustainable Land Imaging (SLI) Program<\/a>, Landsat\u00a010\u00a0will continue the long-running partnership between NASA and the USGS by\u00a0acquiring\u00a0high-quality, space-borne, medium-resolution global land imaging data.\u00a0The Landsat\u00a010\u00a0mission has four major\u00a0objectives:<\/p>\n Landsat\u00a010\u00a0is an innovative mission concept that will continue the Landsat program\u2019s legacy of global land imaging with finer spatial resolution and richer spectral information. The mission reflects both advances in technology, in part through the NASA Sustainable Land Imaging-Technology (SLI-T) program<\/a>, and user\u00a0application\u00a0priorities for land monitoring, as reflected in the following key documents:<\/p>\n Landsat\u00a010 will occupy a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 653 kilometers (406 miles), have an inclination of ~98 degrees, and image the ground track at the equator at 10:10 am \u00b1 5 minutes (mean local time at descending node). At a slightly lower altitude than previous Landsat satellites, Landsat 10 achieves a global minimum of 18-day temporal revisit given the stringent field-of-view requirements of the Landsat record. Images, or scenes,\u00a0acquired\u00a0by the former Landsat missions were cataloged and referenced using\u00a0\u00a0Worldwide Reference System (WRS)<\/a>\u202fgrids (WRS-1 and WRS-2).<\/p>\n To accommodate the Landsat\u00a010\u00a0repeating ground track and global revisit cycle, a new global grid reference system called WRS-3\u00a0was\u00a0established\u00a0to\u00a0acquire, catalog, and distribute Landsat\u00a010\u00a0scenes. Preserving the\u00a0previous\u00a0global reference system and heritage view angle geometry was considered less critical to the overall Landsat\u00a010\u00a0mission architecture, since science applications are increasingly moving from scene- to pixel-based analysis using BRDF-normalized data<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Under WRS-3, global acquisitions will be completed in 265 orbits (or\u00a0paths), compared to the 233 orbits associated with WRS-2. The orbits are numbered sequentially with path numbers increasing from east to west. The row indexing system will be the same as WRS-2, with the orbital paths being segmented into\u00a0248 equally\u00a0spaced\u00a0scene centers based\u00a0on lines of latitude, but the swath size will be slightly narrower. The rows are indexed so that the numbers of the descending (daytime) path increase in the\u00a0along-track direction.<\/p>\n The number of unique ground tracks means that adjacent tracks are approximately 151 kilometers (94 miles) apart at the equator. Therefore, the\u00a0minimum\u00a0swath width, after adding 10 kilometers for ground track error and 3 kilometers for margin, is 164 kilometers (102 miles). The along-track scene length, which includes a combined 3% in-track overlap with adjacent scenes, is 168 kilometers (104 miles).\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n A user needs survey (Wu et al., 2019<\/a>) revealed that Landsat reflective and thermal infrared emission band data could be better optimized and harmonized with Sentinel-2 data by increasing the spatial resolution of bands for future Landsat missions. Finer spatial resolutions better characterize surface features and dynamics, particularly in heterogenous landscapes with complex structural and compositional variability, such as those in urban environments and coastal ecosystems. They also\u00a0facilitate\u00a0the detection and mapping of smaller features, such as woodlots, streams, riparian corridors, and agricultural fields.\u00a0<\/p>\n Landsat\u00a010\u00a0will collect all 26 spectral bands at improved spatial resolutions, with ground sample distances (GSD) of 10 to 20 meters for the visible to\u00a0shortwave-infrared (VSWIR)\u00a0bands and 60 meters for the atmospheric and thermal-infrared\u00a0(TIR)\u00a0bands. Five fundamental bands, including Red 2, Green, Blue,\u00a0near-infrared (NIR)\u00a0Broad, and\u00a0shortwave-infrared (SWIR)\u00a01, will have a GSD of 10 meters. These bands will\u00a0facilitate\u00a0considerable advancements in land cover mapping and enable the calculation of spectral indices (e.g., NDVI, NDMI, MSAVI, SAVI, NDSI) with finer spatial resolutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Over the course of five decades, the number of spectral bands\u00a0acquired\u00a0by Landsat sensors has increased as technological advancements have been made.\u00a0Landsat 1, with its Multispectral Scanner (MSS)<\/a>, collected four broad visible and\u00a0near-infrared (NIR) bands. Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 each\u00a0acquire\u00a011 spectral bands with their Operational Land Imager (OLI<\/a>) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS<\/a>) instruments.\u00a0The addition of new bands, including thermal emission bands, with each successive generation of Landsat satellites has supported novel and emerging scientific applications and\u00a0permitted\u00a0a greater understanding of global ecosystems and processes, all while\u00a0maintaining\u00a0the long-term\u00a0\u201cheritage\u201d bands\u00a0to ensure consistency with data from earlier missions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Landsat\u00a010\u2019s 26\u00a0superspectral\u00a0bands reflect user needs for data continuity and new sources of Earth observation data to address emerging challenges in land, water, and climate science. These enhanced capabilities are made possible by recent advances in instruments, sensors, and observatory components. \u201cSuperspectral\u201d refers to a greater number of bands than the\u00a0previous\u00a0multispectral Landsat missions.\u202fSimilar to\u00a0former\u00a0Landsat missions, the bands were preselected by the user community based on science needs and\u00a0previous\u00a0laboratory, field, airborne, or space-based studies, and were carefully aligned to minimize absorption by the atmosphere\u00a0(i.e., bands\u00a0are\u00a0located\u00a0in\u00a0\u201catmospheric windows<\/a>\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n
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An Innovative Mission Concept<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n
\u202f<\/s>The key elements of the Landsat\u00a010\u00a0concept include:<\/p>\n\n
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Sentinel-2 compatibility, and emerging applications.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
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A New Worldwide Reference System<\/h2>\n
Improved Spatial Resolutions<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Enhanced Spectral Capabilities<\/strong><\/h2>\n