Landsat 8 Lunar Calibration Every full moon, Landsat 8 turns its back on Earth. As the satellite's orbit takes it to the nighttime side of the planet, Landsat 8 pivots to point at the moon. It scans the distant lunar surface multiple times, then flips back around to continue its task of collecting land-cover information of the sunny side of Earth below. These monthly lunar scans are key to ensuring the land-imaging instrument (the Operational Land Imager) aboard Landsat 8 is detecting light cons

8.9K views · 349 reactions | With 50 years of data, Landsat has touched scientists around the world, studying everything from glaciers to green spaces. In fact, there are so many researchers using Landsat that an organization formed called the Ladies of Landsat. As we wait for the rocket, I’m here with two Ladies of Landsat -- Dr. Kate Fickas and Nikki Tulley. | NASA Earth | Facebook