Landsat 7 and beyond

NASA´s Mission to Planet Earth program has recently adopted the Landsat program as an explicit component of the Earth Observing System. This official recognition of the Landsat role has led NASA to consider steps to more fully integrated Landsat 7 and follow-on Landsat instruments into the operational strategy and technical design of the Earth Observing System. These steps include plans to fly the Landsat 7 satellite in formation with the EOS AM1 platform and the development of concepts for an advanced technology Landsat instrument aboard the EOS AM2 platform. Also under review is the early flight of an Earth-observing instrument employing high-risk technologies aboard a NASA New Millennium spacecraft. This article discusses Mission to Planet Earth requirements for future Landsat missions and the efforts to fully incorporate Landsat into the Earth Observing System. With these effort, the May 1998 launch of Landsat 7 will lead to more comprehensive and insightful observations of global land surfaces