Soaring high above our home planet,
Landsat 9 will provide critical data on how Earth is changing.
Circling the globe every 99 minutes, 14 orbits a day,
continuing decades of observations.
The impact of the Landsat record
is the sheer amount of information we’ve collected
all across the world since 1972.
And it is high-quality science-caliber data,
enabling us to accurately track changes over time.
Now, fifty years of Las Vegas expanding
may be fairly simple to notice,
but we can also observe short-term changes,
like the growth of farm crops
through a season in south central Kansas.
With more than one Landsat satellite in orbit,
plus the European Sentinel-2 satellites,
we will get data several times each week,
improving our ability to track crop health and more.
The temperature measurements from Landsat 9
will be used to calculate how much water was used by each farm field.
The Central Platte Natural Resources District,
like many throughout the western United States,
relies on Landsat data to manage irrigation and increase water efficiency.
Landsat 9 will also improve monitoring of coastal waters.
The increased precision in data sent back from Landsat 9
will allow finer distinctions in the levels
of light reflected from water,
making it easier to identify any pollutants that are present.
Around the globe, growing population
and expanding development result in higher amounts of runoff,
damaging sensitive near-shore ecosystems.
Landsat’s long history lets us look into the past
to see the effects of land use changes.
The consequences of climate change
can also be seen in Landsat’s long data record.
Scientists have used Landsat
to track shrinking glaciers for decades,
and Landsat 9 will continue that effort.
The glaciers in the Himalayas are a key water source
for billions of people in south Asia.
Due to global warming,
the increased meltwater collects in large lakes at high altitudes
and poses a flooding risk to downstream villages.
Landsat data is essential to monitor the growth of these lakes.
Because of their location,
glaciers are not easy to study in person.
But Landsat’s view from space allows us
to study glaciers all around the globe.
Landsat 9’s improvements will make it easier
to see features on the glacier surface.
With that, we can better track how fast the glacier is moving.
Knowing the velocity of the ice now,
and how it has changed over the past decades,
helps us forecast likely contributions to rising sea levels in a changing climate
Landsat 9 joins Landsat 8 to continue the unbroken string of Landsat data.
For five decades, we have relied on Landsat’s high-caliber,
science-quality observations to understand and protect our home planet.
And while Landsat 9 begins sending back data,
we are already planning for the next evolution
in the Landsat program.
[on-screen text] Landsat is a joint program of NASA and USGS