BackForwardInstrument:  TIRS 

Instrument details
Acronym TIRS
Full name Thermal Infra-Red Sensor
Purpose High-resolution land and vegetation observation
Short description 2 TIR channels [see detailed characteristic below]
Background New development on Landsat.8. Extended design lifetime on Landsat-9 (TIRS-2)
Scanning Technique Pushbroom; 1500 pixel/line; swath 185 km
Resolution 100 m
Coverage / Cycle Global coverage in 8 days
Mass 225 kg Power 400 W Data Rate 26.2 Mbps

 

Providing Agency NASA
Instrument Maturity Backed by strong heritage
Utilization Period: 2013 to 2031
Last update: 2022-08-08
Detailed characteristics
Central wavelength Spectral interval NEΔT @ specific scene temperature
10.8 μm 10.3 - 11.3 μm 0.4 K @ 300K;  0.35 K @ 320K
12.0 μm 11.5 - 12.5  μm 0.4 K @ 300K;  0.35 K @ 320K
Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Earth observation instrument
  • Passive optical radiometer or spectrometer
  • High resolution optical imager
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 1
  • High-resolution multi-spectral VIS/IR imagers
  • High-resolution multi-spectral VIS/IR imager
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Land surface temperature
Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Cloud cover5 - marginalInfrequent coverage.TIR window channel(s) around 11 micrometers
Cloud top height4 - fairInfrequent coverage.TIR window channels around 11 micrometers to estimate cloud top height from its temperature
Cloud top temperature4 - fairInfrequent coverage.TIR window channels around 11 micrometers
Fire fractional cover2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.TIR window channel(s) around 11 micrometers
Fire radiative power5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.TIR window channel(s) around 11 micrometers
Fire temperature5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.TIR window channel(s) around 11 micrometers
Land surface temperature*4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.TIR split window channels around 11 micrometers for water vapour correction
Sea surface temperature4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.TIR split window channels for water vapour correction
Integrated Water Vapour (IWV)4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Low troposphere dominant.. Infrequent coverage.TIR channels in the 11 micrometers split window