BackForwardInstrument:  OLI 

Instrument details
Acronym OLI
Full name Operational Land Imager
Purpose High-resolution land and vegetation observation
Short description 9 VIS/NIR/SWIR narrow-band channels, including one panchromatic (PAN) [see detailed characteristics below]
Background Evolution of ALI flown on NMP EO-1. The flight unit on Landsat-9 is named OLI-2 which has 14 bit data compared to 12 bit for OLI-1.
Scanning Technique Pushbroom; 6000 pixel/line (9 narrow-band channels), 18000 pixel/line (PAN); swath 185 km
Resolution 30 m (8 narrow-band channels), 15 m (PAN)
Coverage / Cycle Global coverage in 16 days, in daylight.
Mass 450 kg Power 375 W Data Rate 265 Mbps

 

Providing Agency NASA
Instrument Maturity Backed by strong heritage
Utilization Period: 2013 to 2031
Last update: 2021-09-28
Detailed characteristics
Central Spectral SNR at specified input spectral radiance
wavelength interval Low signal High signal
443 nm 433 - 453 nm 130 @ 40 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1 290 @ 190 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1
482 nm 450 - 515 nm 130 @ 40 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1 360 @ 190 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1
565 nm 525 - 600 nm 100 @ 30 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1 390 @ 194 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1
660 nm 630 - 680 nm 90 @ 22 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1 340 @ 150 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1
867 nm 845 - 885 nm 90 @ 14 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1 460 @ 150 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1
1375 nm 1360 - 1390 nm 50 @ 6.0 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1 50 @ 6.0 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1
1650 nm 1560 - 1660 nm 100 @ 4.0 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1 540  @ 32 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1
2215 nm 2100 - 2300 nm 100 @ 1.7 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1 510 @ 11 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1
Panchromatic 500 - 680 nm 80 @ 23 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1 230 @ 156 W m-2 sr-1 μm-1
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
  • Biomass
  • Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)
  • Fraction of vegetated land
  • Land cover
  • Leaf Area Index (LAI)
  • Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)
  • Vegetation type
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
Biomass*4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI and LAI
Cloud cover5 - marginalInfrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Cloud optical depth3 - highLow-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Earth surface albedo5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS channels
Fire fractional cover2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS channels with high resolution for boundary detection
Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)*4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS channels including Red at 700 nm
Fraction of vegetated land*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Glacier cover3 - highCloud sensitive.. Long time for mapping.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR, SWIR and panchromatic channels for accurate boundary detection and screening ice from clouds
Land cover*1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Leaf Area Index (LAI)*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Infrequent coverage.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS and NIR channels
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR)4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.VIS channels, range undersampled
Short-wave cloud reflectance4 - fairInfrequent coverage.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Unsuitable dynamic range (saturation)
Snow cover1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR, SWIR (snow/cloud discrimination) and panchromatic (higher resolution) channels
Soil moisture at surface5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness
Soil type1 - primaryCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA5 - marginalSpectral interpolation needed.. Information on BRDF needed.. Infrequent coverage.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Vegetation type*2 - very highCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Aerosol volcanic ash5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column5 - marginalCloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Sea-ice cover4 - fairCloud sensitive.. Daylight only.VIS, NIR (for contour enhancement) and SWIR (for discrimination from clouds) channels