What are the orbit coverage parameters of the Landsat instruments?
Landsat 4, 5, 7 operate in circular, sun synchronous, near polar orbit at a nominal altitude of 705 km. The inclination of the orbit is 98.2 degrees, and the satellites circle the earth every 98.9 minutes. The MSS, TM and ETM+ sensors view the Earth every 16 days with a complete cycle of 233 orbits. This equates to 14 orbits per day. The local time of equatorial crossing (descending orbits) is approximately 09:45 am (Landsat 4 and 5) and 10:15 am (Landsat 7). Each consecutive orbit is displaced west of the previous orbit by 2752 km, or 24.7 degrees in longitude at the equator. The track of each succeeding days is shifted to the west by 10.8 degrees or 12045 km at the equator. The descending (daytime) orbit paths run from northeast to southwest, whereas ascending (night time) orbit paths run from southwest to northeast.
