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Introduction to Landsat Remote Sensing Satellites

The Landsat Series - Multispectral Scanners - Thematic Mappers - Australian Data - Web Links

Multispectral Scanners (MSS)

Landsats 1 to 5 deployed Multispectral Scanners (MSS) which recorded four spectral bands with an 80 m per pixel resolution. It provided information on the earth's surface in the visible and near infrared parts of the spectrum.

Landsat MSS Image

Note: The Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) on the Landsat 7 spacecraft gathers data in effectively the same bands as the multispectral scanners, so coverage of Earth's surface in the MSS bands has been accumulating since 1972.

Radiometric Characteristics
Bands Spectral Range
(Microns)
EM RegionGeneralised Application Details
10.5 - 0.6Visible Green Assessment of vegetation vigour, coastal water mapping
20.6 - 0.7Visible Red Chlorophyll absorption for vegetation differentiation
30.7 - 0.8 Near Infrared Delineation of water bodies, biomass surveys
40.8 - 1.1 Near Infrared

Other Characteristics
Ground Sampling Interval (pixel size)Landsat 1-356 x 79 m
Landsat 4,557 x 82 m
Scene size184 x 172 km
Quantisation8 bit (256 levels)