Landsat 5 is back to nominal operation

26 August 2009, 2:16pm

Satellite Landsat 5 has been brought into the nominal operation. As a reminder, the image acquisition has been suspended onboard the space vehicle on 13 August. The reason was the deviation of the Landsat 5 satellite attitude beyond the envelop constraints, which disrupted the nominal survey operation and solar array recharging process.

The Satellite resumed the nominal operation on August 14 after the troubleshooting. The major Landsat 5 equipment - the optical-mechanical scanner, TM thematic mapper — ensure the survey within 185 km swath with 30 m spatial resolution in six spectral channels of the visible, near and mid sections of the infrared (IR) spectrum and 120 m in the long wave section of IR spectrum.

TM camera has a previous history of trippings, including the shutdown against the dangerously low battery charge onboard the satellite. It’s important to consider, that Landsat 5 has been launched in 1984 which makes it the absolute record breaker among the operating Earth survey satellites.

The images acquired by Landsat 5, as well as Landsat 7, are still used for the International Project “Global Land Survey 2010”. GLS program is focused on building the Global satellite survey of the Earth surface, and is implemented on the initiative of NASA and USGS. ScanEx R&D Center — participant of GLS-2010 project — has been receiving Landsat 5 imagery at the Center’s commercial network of receiving complexes in Moscow, Irkutsk and Magadan, visibility zones of which cover the territory of Russia and the adjoining countries, since June 2009.

You can learn more about various types of satellite data application, including “Global Land Survey 2010” project progress, at the 4th International Conference “Earth from Space – the most effective solutions“. The conference is open to general public. The registration of participants is open till November 20.

ScanEx RD Centre Moscow

Geo: International