Oil extraction in the Fort McMurray area, Alberta, Canada.

1974 2004

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2007–3093

Revised June 2010

Landsat Data Continuity Mission

What Is the LDCM and Why Is It Important?

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) is a 

partnership between the National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Geological Survey 

(USGS) to place the next Landsat satellite in orbit by late 

2012. The Landsat era that began in 1972 will become 

a nearly 45-year global land record with the successful 

launch and operation of the LDCM. The LDCM will 

continue the acquisition, archival, and distribution of 

multispectral imagery affording global, synoptic, and 

repetitive coverage of the Earth’s land surfaces at a 

scale where natural and human-induced changes can be 

detected, differentiated, characterized, and monitored over 

time.

The mission objectives of the LDCM are to 

(1) collect and archive medium resolution (circa 30-m 

spatial resolution) multispectral image data affording 

seasonal coverage of the global landmasses for a period 

of no less than 5 years; (2) ensure that LDCM data are 

sufficiently consistent with data from the earlier Landsat 

missions, in terms of acquisition geometry, calibration, 

coverage characteristics, spectral characteristics, output 

product quality, and data availability to permit studies 

of land-cover and land-use change over time; and 

(3) distribute LDCM data products to the general public 

on a nondiscriminatory basis and at a price no greater 

than the incremental cost of fulfilling a user request. 

Distribution of LDCM data over the Internet at no cost to 

the user is currently planned.

LDCM History

The original LDCM plans called for NASA to 

purchase data meeting LDCM specifications from a 

commercially owned and operated satellite system. 

However, after an evaluation of proposals received from 

industry, NASA cancelled the Request for Proposals in 

September 2003. In August 2004, a memorandum from 

the White House Office of Science and Technology 

Policy (OSTP) directed Federal agencies to place 

Landsat-type sensors on the National Polar-orbiting 

Operational Environmental Satellite System platform. 

Following an evaluation of the technical complexity of 

this task, the strategy was adjusted and on December 23, 

2005, the OSTP issued a memorandum directing NASA 

to implement the LDCM in the form of a free-flyer 

spacecraft carrying an instrument referred to as the 

Operational Land Imager, or OLI. NASA and the USGS 

are now implementing the OSTP directive.
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Eruption of Mount St. Helens, Washington, USA.

Band 

number Band name Center wavelength(nanometers)

Minimum lower band edge 

(nanometers)

Maximum upper band edge 

(nanometers)

Ground resolution 

(square meters)

1 Coastal aerosol 443 433 453 30

2 Blue 482 450 515 30

3 Green 562 525 600 30

4 Red 655 630 680 30

5 NIR 865 845 885 30

6 SWIR 1 1,610 1,560 1,660 30

7 SWIR 2 2,200 2,100 2,300 30

8 Panchromatic 590 500 680 15

9 Cirrus 1,375 1,360 1,390 30

10 TIR 1 10,800 10,300 11,300 120

11 TIR 2 12,000 11,500 12,500 120

Implementing the LDCM 

The LDCM is planned as a 5-year mission and 

will include enough fuel for 10 years of operation. 

NASA and the USGS share responsibility for LDCM 

implementation. NASA will develop the flight systems 

including the spacecraft, the instrumentation, the missionoperations element, and the mission launch, and perform 

on-orbit checkout. The USGS will develop, implement, 

and operate the ground-data acquisition network and 

image-processing and archive facilities, and will provide 

data products to the user community. In addition, the 

USGS will be responsible for satellite flight operations 

following launch. 

The centerpiece of the LDCM space segment is 

the OLI. By collecting land-surface data with spatial 

resolution and spectral band specifications consistent 

with historical Landsat data, the OLI instrument will 

advance future measurement capabilities. The OLI will 

feature two additional spectral channels: an “ultra-blue” 

band for coastal and aerosol studies, and a band for cirrus 

cloud detection. A thermal infrared sensor (TIRS) will 

collect data in two long wavelength bands that will be 

co-registered with OLI data.

A key feature in the ground segment being planned 

by the USGS is the provision of high-quality LDCM 

standard data products. About 400 scenes per day will 
“Warming Island,” Greenland 1985–2005.

Characteristic Specification

Pixel size 15 meters/30 meters/30 meters (panchromatic/

multi-spectral/thermal) 

Media type Web-enabled (no cost electronic distribution)

Product type L1T

Output format GeoTIFF

Map projection UTM (Polar Stereographic for Antarctica)

Datum WGS84

Orientation North up

Resampling Cubic convolution

Accuracy ~12 meters 90 percent (circular error) global

be imaged and processed over global land and coastal 

areas. All acceptable scenes will be terrain corrected to 

a geographic projection and made available at no cost to 

users via the Internet. The planned specifications for the 

LDCM standard products are listed in the following table.

Landsat Science Team

An important component of the LDCM is the Landsat 

Science Team, funded by the USGS and led by the USGS 

and NASA. The team works to forward the objectives of 

LDCM and to contribute to the integration of LDCM data 

with past, present, and future Landsat and other remotely 

sensed data. The team also provides science support on 

issues critical to the success of the mission including 

data acquisition, product access and format, and science 

opportunities. 

Team members and their affiliations are:

• Richard Allen, University of Idaho 

• Martha Anderson, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 

Agricultural Research Service

• Alan Belward, Joint Research Center of the European 

Commission

• Robert Bindschadler, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

• Warren Cohen, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest 

Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station

• Feng Gao, Earth Resources Technology 

• Sam Goward, University of Maryland

• Dennis Helder, South Dakota State University

• Eileen Helmer, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest 

Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry

• Rama Nemani, NASA Ames Research Center

• Lazaros Oreopoulos, University of Maryland-Baltimore 

County

• John Schott, Rochester Institute of Technology

• Prasad Thenkabail, U.S. Geological Survey

• Eric Vermote, University of Maryland

• James Vogelmann, U.S. Geological Survey

• Curtis Woodcock, Boston University

• Michael Wulder, Canadian Forest Service

• Randolph Wynne, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
Aral Sea, Kazakhstan, 1973–2000.

1973

2004

Looking Forward

The U.S. Government ultimately seeks to 

ensure long-term continuity of Landsat-like 

data. As stated in the December 2005 OSTP 

memorandum: “Concurrent with the actions cited, 

the National Science and Technology Council, 

in coordination with NASA, DOI/USGS, the 

Executive Office of the President, and other 

agencies and offices as appropriate, will lead 

an effort to develop a long-term plan to achieve 

technical, financial, and managerial stability 

for operational land imaging in accord with the 

goals and objectives of the U.S. Integrated Earth 

Observation System.” Toward this end, the OSTP 

released a plan in August 2007 for a National 

Land Imaging Program that includes calling for 

operational moderate resolution land imaging.

For information on LDCM and to receive 

updates and newsletters, visit 

http://ldcm.usgs.gov, http://ldcm.nasa.gov/, 

or contact:

U.S. Geological Survey

Earth Resources Observation and Science 

(EROS) Center

47914 252nd Street

Sioux Falls, SD 57198-0001

Phone: 605-594-6151

Toll free: 800-252-4547

Fax: 605-594-6589

Email: custserv@usgs.gov

Publishing support provided by:

Rolla Publishing Service Center