Landsat-8: Science and product vision for terrestrial global change research

Authors

D. P. Roy, South Dakota State UniversityFollow
M. A. Wulder, Canadian Forest Service
T. R. Loveland, U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
C. E. Woodcock, Boston UniversityFollow
R. G. Allen, University of Idaho Research and Extension Center
M. C. Anderson, USDA, Agricultural Research ServiceFollow
D. Helder, South Dakota State University BrookingsFollow
J. R. Irons, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
D. M. Johnson, United States Department of Agriculture
R. Kennedy, Boston University
T. A. Scambos, University of ColoradoFollow
C. B. Schaaf, University of Massachusetts Boston
J. R. Schott, Rochester Institute of TechnologyFollow
Y. Sheng, University of California
E. F. Vermote, Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
A. S. Belward, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability
R. Bindschadler, Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
W. B. Cohen, USDA Forest Service
F. Gao, USDA Agricultural Research ServiceFollow
J. D. Hipple, United States Department of Agriculture
P. Hostert, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
J. Huntington, Desert Research Institute
C. O. Justice, University of Maryland
Ayse Kilic, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
V. Kovalskyy, South Dakota State University
Z. P. Lee, University of Massachusetts Boston
L. Lymburner, Geoscience Australia
J. G. Masek, Biospheric Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
J. McCorkel, Biospheric Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Y. Shuai, ERT Inc. at the Biospheric Sciences Laboratory of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
R. Trezza, University of Idaho Research and Extension Center
J. Vogelmann, U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) CenterFollow
R. H. Wynne, Virginia Tech
Z. Zhu, Boston University

ORCID IDs

Ayse Kilic

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2014

Citation

Remote Sensing of Environment 145 (2014) 154–172; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2014.02.001

Comments

Copyright © 2014 The Authors; published by Elsevier inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-SA license.

Abstract

Landsat 8, a NASA and USGS collaboration, acquires global moderate-resolution measurements of the Earth's terrestrial and polar regions in the visible, near-infrared, short wave, and thermal infrared. Landsat 8 extends the remarkable 40 year Landsat record and has enhanced capabilities including new spectral bands in the blue and cirrus cloud-detection portion of the spectrum, twothermal bands, improved sensor signal-to-noise performance and associated improvements in radiometric resolution, and an improved duty cycle that allows collection of a significantly greater number of images per day. This paper introduces the current (2012–2017) Landsat Science Team's efforts to establish an initial understanding of Landsat 8 capabilities and the steps ahead in support of priorities identified by the team. Preliminary evaluation of Landsat 8 capabilities and identification of new science and applications opportunities are described with respect to calibration and radiometric characterization; surface reflectance; surface albedo; surface temperature, evapotranspiration and drought; agriculture; land cover, condition, disturbance and change; fresh and coastalwater; and snowand ice. Insights into the development of derived ‘higher-level’ Landsat products are provided in recognition of the growing need for consistently processed, moderate spatial resolution, large area, long-term terrestrial data records for resource management and for climate and global change studies. The paper concludes with future prospects, emphasizing the opportunities for land imaging constellations by combining Landsat data with data collected from other international sensing systems, and consideration of successor Landsat mission requirements.