The
Landsat program is the longest running enterprise for acquisition of
satellite imagery of
Earth. On July 23, 1972 the Earth Resources Technology Satellite was launched. This was eventually renamed to Landsat. The most recent,
Landsat 8, was launched on February 11, 2013. The instruments on the Landsat satellites have acquired millions of images. The images, archived in the United States and at Landsat receiving stations around the world, are a unique resource for global change research and applications in
agriculture,
cartography,
geology,
forestry,
regional planning,
surveillance and
education, and can be viewed through the USGS 'EarthExplorer' website. Landsat 7 data has eight
spectral bands with spatial resolutions ranging from 15 to 60 meters; the
temporal resolution is 16 days.