WMO OSCAR | Details for Instrument OLI

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Instrument: 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

Landsat Data Continuity Mission (USGS)
- Landsat-8 (see instrument status) May 2013 - 2024
- Landsat-9 (see instrument status) Sep 2021 - 2031

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.

Variable	Relevance for measuring this variable	Operational limitations	Explanation
Biomass*	4 - fair	Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Biomass inferred from NDVI and LAI
Cloud cover	5 - marginal	Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Cloud optical depth	3 - high	Low-density cloud only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Earth surface albedo	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.	VIS channels
Fire fractional cover	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS channels with high resolution for boundary detection
Fraction of Absorbed PAR (FAPAR)*	4 - fair	Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.	VIS channels including Red at 700 nm
Fraction of vegetated land*	1 - primary	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Glacier cover	3 - high	Cloud 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 - primary	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Leaf Area Index (LAI)*	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.. Infrequent coverage.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)*	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.	VIS and NIR channels
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR)	4 - fair	Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.	VIS channels, range undersampled
Short-wave cloud reflectance	4 - fair	Infrequent coverage.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Unsuitable dynamic range (saturation)
Snow cover	1 - primary	Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR, SWIR (snow/cloud discrimination) and panchromatic (higher resolution) channels
Soil moisture at surface	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Index only.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels. Soil moisture inferred from differential brightness
Soil type	1 - primary	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Upward short-wave irradiance at TOA	5 - marginal	Spectral interpolation needed.. Information on BRDF needed.. Infrequent coverage.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Vegetation type*	2 - very high	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Aerosol volcanic ash	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Aerosol volcanic ash Total Column	5 - marginal	Cloud sensitive.. Infrequent coverage.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR and SWIR channels
Sea-ice cover	4 - fair	Cloud sensitive.. Daylight only.	VIS, NIR (for contour enhancement) and SWIR (for discrimination from clouds) channels