Landsat 8: Band by Band

The Landsat 8 satellite doesn't take pictures like a camera, but rather takes pictures of the Earth using different wavelengths of light. Each of these different 'bands' can then be reassembled to tell us different stories about Earth.

Landsat satellites circle the globe every 99 minutes, collecting data about the land surfaces passing underneath. After 16 days, the Landsat satellite has passed over every spot on the globe, and recorded data in 11 different wavelength regions. The individual wavelength bands can be combined to create color images, with different combinations of the 11 bands revealing different information about the condition of the land cover.

The data for this video was collected by Landsat 5 on November 10, 2011.

Visualizer: Alex Kekesi (lead)

For more information or to download this public domain video, go to https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11491#18835.