Planets and Moons  ID: 11606

Landsat 8 Lunar Calibration

Released on July 11, 2014
Every full moon, Landsat 8 turns its back on Earth. As the satellite's orbit takes it to the nighttime side of the planet, Landsat 8 pivots to point at the moon. It scans the distant lunar surface multiple times, then flips back around to continue its task of collecting land-cover information of the sunny side of Earth below.

These monthly lunar scans are key to ensuring the land-imaging instrument (the Operational Land Imager) aboard Landsat 8 is detecting light consistently. For this, engineers need a consistent source of light to measure. And while there are some spots on Earth – like the Sahara Desert or other arid sites - that reflect a relatively stable amount of light, nothing on our planet beats the moon, which lacks an atmosphere and has an unchanging surface, barring the odd meteorite.

The Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. The first Landsat satellite launched in 1972 and Landsat 8 launched on February 11, 2013.

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Landsat 8 uses the full moon every month to check that the sensors on the Operational Land Imager are detecting light consistently.

For complete transcript, click here.

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

Credits

Chris Meaney (HTSI): Lead Animator
Matthew R. Radcliff (USRA): Video Editor
Brian Markham (NASA/GSFC): Interviewee
Susan M. Good (AI Solutions, Inc): Interviewee
Matthew R. Radcliff (USRA): Producer
Brian Markham (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
James R. Irons (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Project Support
Rob Andreoli (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.): Videographer
Kate Ramsayer (Telophase): Writer
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11606

Missions:
Landsat
LDCM: Landsat Data Continuity Mission

This item is part of these series:
Narrated Movies
Landsat
LDCM

Goddard TV Tape:
G2014-023 -- Landsat Lunar Cal

Keywords:
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> Landsat
SVS >> LDCM
NASA Science >> Planets and Moons