Satellites

JOMO KENYATTA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND

TECHNOLOGY

NAME

MUTISO DENNIS MUTIO

REG.NO

AG234-0143/2008

COURSE

LAND RESOURCE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT

UNIT

ALP 2306: REMOTE SENSING 2

ASSIGNMENT

SENSOR SPECIFICATIONS (LANDSAT THEMATIC MAPPER 4 & 5 AND ASTER)

LANDSAT 4

Landsat 4 was launched on July 16, 1982. The Landsat 4 spacecraft was significantly different than that of the previous Landsats and Landsat 4 did not carry the RBV instrument. In addition to the Multispectral Scanner System (MSS) instrument, Landsat 4 carried a sensor with improved spectral and spatial resolution, i.e., the new satellites could see a wider (and more scientifically-tailored) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum and could see the ground in greater detail. This new instrument was known as the Thematic Mapper (TM).

The Landsat 4 TM instrument had seven spectral bands. Data was collected from the blue, green, red, near-infrared, mid-infrared (2 bands) and thermal infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Within a year of launch, Landsat 4 lost the use of two of its solar panels and both of its direct downlink transmitters. Landsat 4 was kept in orbit for housekeeping telemetry command and tracking data (which it downlinked via a separate data path, the S-band) until it was decommissioned in 2001.

The Details

* Launch Date: July 16 , 1982

* Status: decommissioned, June 15, 2001

* Sensors: TM, MSS

* Altitude: 705 km

* Inclination: 98.2°

* Orbit: polar, sun-synchronous

* Equatorial Crossing Time: nominally 9:45 AM

(± 15 min.) local time (descending node)

* Period of Revolution : 99 minutes; ~14.5 orbits/day

* Spatial Resolution: 30 m (60 m - thermal, 15-m pan)

* Spectral Range: 0.45 - 12.5 µm

* Radiometric resolution: 8 bits

* Number of Bands: 8

* Temporal Resolution: 16 days.

LANDSAT 5

On March 1, 1984, NASA launched Landsat 5 the agency’s last originally mandated Landsat satellite....