Editing Landsat program (section)

== Spatial and spectral resolution ==
Landsat 1 through 5 carried the Landsat [[Multispectral Scanner]] (MSS). Landsat 4 and 5 carried both the MSS and [[Thematic Mapper]] (TM) instruments. Landsat 7 uses the [[Landsat 7|Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus]] (ETM+) scanner. Landsat 8 uses two instruments, the [[Operational Land Imager]] (OLI) for optical bands and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) for thermal bands. The band designations, bandpasses, and pixel sizes for the Landsat instruments are:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://landsat.usgs.gov/what-are-band-designations-landsat-satellites|title=What are the band designations for the Landsat satellites? {{!}} Landsat Missions|website=landsat.usgs.gov|access-date=2019-01-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122043515/https://landsat.usgs.gov/what-are-band-designations-landsat-satellites|archive-date=2017-01-22}} {{PD-notice}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|+Landsat 1–5 Multispectral Scanner (MSS)
!Landsat 1–3 MSS
!Landsat 4–5 MSS
!Wavelength (micrometers)
!Resolution (meters)
|-
|Band 4 – Green
|Band 1 – Green
|0.5 – 0.6
|60*
|-
|Band 5 – Red
|Band 2 – Red
|0.6 – 0.7
|60*
|-
|Band 6 – Near Infrared (NIR)
|Band 3 – NIR
|0.7 – 0.8
|60*
|-
|Band 7 – NIR
|Band 4 – NIR
|0.8 – 1.1
|60*
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> Original MSS pixel size was 79 x 57 meters; production systems now resample the data to 60 meters.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Landsat 4–5 Thematic Mapper (TM)
!Bands
!Wavelength (micrometers)
!Resolution (meters)
|-
|Band 1 – Blue
|0.45 – 0.52
|30
|-
|Band 2 – Green
|0.52 – 0.60
|30
|-
|Band 3 – Red
|0.63 – 0.69
|30
|-
|Band 4 – NIR
|0.76 – 0.90
|30
|-
|Band 5 – Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) 1
|1.55 – 1.75
|30
|-
|Band 6 – Thermal
|10.40 – 12.50
|120* (30)
|-
|Band 7 – SWIR 2
|2.08 – 2.35
|30
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> TM Band 6 was acquired at 120-meter resolution, but products are resampled to 30-meter pixels.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+)
!Bands
!Wavelength (micrometers)
!Resolution (meters)
|-
|Band 1 – Blue
|0.45 – 0.52
|30
|-
|Band 2 – Green
|0.52 – 0.60
|30
|-
|Band 3 – Red
|0.63 – 0.69
|30
|-
|Band 4 – NIR
|0.77 – 0.90
|30
|-
|Band 5 – SWIR 1
|1.55 – 1.75
|30
|-
|Band 6 – Thermal
|10.40 – 12.50
|60* (30)
|-
|Band 7 – SWIR 2
|2.09 – 2.35
|30
|-
|Band 8 – Panchromatic
|0.52 – 0.90
|15
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> ETM+ Band 6 is acquired at 60-meter resolution, but products are resampled to 30-meter pixels.

[[File:The spectral band placement for each sensor of Landsat.jpg|thumb|upright=2|The spectral band placement for each sensor of Landsat]]

{| class="wikitable"
|+Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS)<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Barsi|first1=Julia A.|last2=Lee|first2=Kenton|last3=Kvaran|first3=Geir|last4=Markham|first4=Brian L.|last5=Pedelty|first5=Jeffrey A.|date=October 2014|title=The Spectral Response of the Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager|journal=Remote Sensing|volume=6|issue=10|pages=10232–10251|doi=10.3390/rs61010232|bibcode=2014RemS....610232B|doi-access=free}}</ref>
!Bands
!Wavelength (micrometers)
!Resolution (meters)
|-
|Band 1 - Ultra Blue (coastal/aerosol)
|0.435 – 0.451
|30
|-
|Band 2 - Blue
|0.452 – 0.512
|30
|-
|Band 3 - Green
|0.533 – 0.590
|30
|-
|Band 4 – Red
|0.636 – 0.673
|30
|-
|Band 5 – NIR
|0.851 – 0.879
|30
|-
|Band 6 – SWIR 1 
|1.566 – 1.651
|30
|-
|Band 7 – SWIR 2
|2.107 – 2.294
|30
|-
|Band 8 – Panchromatic
|0.503 – 0.676
|15
|-
|Band 9 – Cirrus
|1.363 – 1.384
|30
|-
|Band 10 – Thermal 1
|10.60 – 11.19
|100* (30)
|-
|Band 11 – Thermal 2
|11.50 – 12.51
|100* (30)
|}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> TIRS bands are acquired at 100 meter resolution, but are resampled to 30 meter in delivered data product.

An advantage of Landsat imagery, and [[remote sensing]] in general, is that it provides data at a synoptic global level that is impossible to replicate with in situ measurements. However, there are tradeoffs between the local detail of the measurements (radiometric resolution, number of spectral bands) and the spatial scale of the area being measured. Landsat imagery is coarse in spatial resolution compared to using other remote sensing methods, such as imagery from airplanes. Compared to other satellites, Landsat's spatial resolution is relatively high, yet revisit time is relatively less frequent.