USGS Landsat Ground Stations
United States ground stations in South Dakota and Alaska, as well as international ground stations in Norway, Germany, and Australia, serve as the primary data capture and Telemetry, Tracking, and Control (TT&C) facilities for the USGS Landsat satellite missions.
Visit the Landsat International Ground Stations Network page
Landsat 8 and 9 Operations
The five ground receiving stations that make up the Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 USGS Ground Network are listed below. These receiving stations are responsible for downlinking the satellite telemetry (via S-band Radio Frequency (RF) link) and science data (via X-band RF link) that feeds the USGS Landsat data archive. The stations can also uplink commands to the satellite.
The X-band is used to transmit both real-time and recorded Landsat 8 science data, which are then transferred from the stations as Mission Data to the Data Processing and Archive System (DPAS) located at the USGS EROS Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
- Sioux Falls, South Dakota
- Alice Springs, Australia
- Neustrelitz, Germany
- Gilmore Creek, Alaska
- Svalbard, Norway
Additionally, each station supports the routing of S-band uplink communications to the Observatory and the routing of downlink telemetry spacecraft health and safety monitoring communications to the Mission Operations Center (MOC) located at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland. The NASA Tracking Data and Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) provides housekeeping support for the Landsat satellites.
Landsat 7 Operations
The four ground receiving stations that made up the Landsat 7 USGS Ground Network are located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; North Pole, Alaska; Alice Springs, Australia; and Svalbard, Norway. These sites received both the science data (via X-band RF link) and the spacecraft housekeeping data (via S-band RF link).
The X-band was used to transmit both real-time and recorded Landsat 7 science data, which were then transferred from the stations as Raw Computer Compatible (RCC) files to the Landsat 7 Processing System (LPS), located at the USGS EROS Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Additionally, LGS, SGS, and NPA supported the routing of S-band uplink communications to the Observatory and the routing of downlink telemetry spacecraft health and safety monitoring communications to the MOC located at NASA GSFC in Greenbelt, Maryland. Downlink telemetry communications were also supported at ASN.
The NASA Tracking Data and Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) also provided housekeeping support for Landsat 7.