Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) Orbits
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- Visualizations by:
- Cindy Starr
- View full credits
The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), also to be named Landsat 8 after its scheduled launch in February 2013, will be the eighth in the series of Landsat satellites. Since 1972, Landsat satellites have been observing and measuring Earth's continental and coastal landscapes at 15 to 30 meter resolution, where human impacts and natural changes can be monitored and characterized over time.
This animation portrays how the LDCM satellite will orbit the Earth 13 times per day at an altitude of 705 km collecting landcover data. With a cross-track width of 185 km, the satellite will completely cover the globe in a 16 day period compiling a total of 233 orbits. A day number and the elapsed time are shown to clearly depict the passage of time which starts slowly in the beginning and increases to day-by-day steps at the end of the animation. The terrain is exaggerated by 6 times during the first day portrayed, but is increased to 12 times when the camera pulls out to a global view. An artificial orbit trail is shown following the spacecraft to indicate its position when the satellite itself is too small to be visible.
The composite animation of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) satellite orbiting the Earth, with the satellite, Earth, stars and day/time overlay.
This video is also available on our YouTube channel.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
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Animators
- Ernie Wright (USRA)
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC)
- Rachel Kreutzinger (USRA)
- Walt Feimer (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Visualizer
- Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.) [Lead]
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Scientist
- James R. Irons (NASA/GSFC)
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Producer
- Matthew Radcliff (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Datasets used in this visualization
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ICESat GLAS/ICESat 1 km Laser Altimetry Digital Elevation Model of Greenland
ID: 723 -
Terra and Aqua BMNG (Blue Marble: Next Generation)
ID: 508Credit: The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
This dataset can be found at: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/
See all pages that use this dataset -
Terra and Aqua Blue Marble Cloud Cover
ID: 509Credit: The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
See all pages that use this dataset -
GTOPO30 Topography and Bathymetry
ID: 274
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.
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