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Landsat program reaches 9 million scenes as Landsat 9 continues 50-year Earth record
Summary
The Landsat program — jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey — marked its 9 millionth archived scene and emphasized Landsat 9's role in extending a 50-year continuous observational record of Earth's land surfaces.
The Landsat archive reached its 9 millionth scene, a milestone the program said marks five decades of continuous Earth observation. The archive, managed by the U.S. Geological Survey in partnership with NASA, provides satellite images approximately 115 miles wide that researchers and the public can download for monitoring land use, vegetation, coastal waters and other surface conditions.
The program explained that Landsat 9, together with Landsat 8, can image Earth’s land and coastal areas every eight days, providing near real-time data for scientists and resource managers. Landsat 9 was described as offering improved radiometric sensitivity with 16,384 shades of intensity, four times the color depth of previous sensors for some bands, and carrying two instruments: OLI-2 (optical) and TIRS-2 (thermal infrared).
Why it matters: The Landsat archive is widely used by researchers, governments and private users to track environmental change, inform resource management and support decisions that depend on consistent long-term satellite records.
