Landsat 9 Pre-launch, Commissioning, and Early On-Orbit Imaging Performance

Dear Colleagues,

With a successful launch on September 27, 2021, Landsat 9 joined the 50-year Landsat mission: the longest-running Earth-observing satellite program. Largely designed to be identical to Landsat 8, Landsat 9 carries updated Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) instruments. Landsat 9 improvements include reduced stray-light in TIRS and an increased dynamic range bit-depth with OLI. Advances in pre-launch characterization gave a better understanding of the geometric, radiometric, spatial, spectral, etc. quality of both instruments. Activities during the commissioning period combined the pre-launch knowledge with the on-board calibration system responses and the latest vicarious calibration methods to ensure Landsat 9 OLI and TIRS were performing at or above the required levels while fitting seamlessly into the existing Landsat archive.

This Special Issue aims to cover all Landsat 9 calibration and validation activities performed to date to ensure its geometric, radiometric, spatial, spectral, etc. data quality. Topics may cover pre-launch characterization, testing, commissioning, and early on-orbit performance for either the Landsat 9 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) instruments, spacecraft, or full observatories. Comparisons between Landsat 9 and other missions, including the existing Landsat archive, are also welcome.

Suggested themes and article types for submissions.

• Landsat 9 Design
• Landsat 9 Pre-Launch Testing
• Landsat 9 Geometric Performance
• Landsat 9 Radiometric Performance
• Landsat 9 Vicarious Calibration
• Landsat 9 Cross-Calibration

Cody Anderson
Dr. Lawrence Ong
Michael Choate
Esad Micijevic
Kathryn Ruslander
Guest Editors

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