陆地卫星计划是运行时间最长的地球观测计划，1972年7月23日地球资源卫星（Earth Resources Technology Satellite）发射，后来此卫星被改称为陆地卫星(LANDSAT)，最新的陆地卫星是2013年2月11日发射的陆地卫星8号(LANDSAT 8)。

陆地卫星上所装备的仪器已获得数以百万计的珍贵图像，这些图像被保存在美国和全球各地的接收站中，这一独特资源用于全球变化的相关研究，并应用在农业、制图、林业、区域规划、监控和教育等领域中。陆地卫星7号拥有7个光谱波段，空间分辨率为15至60公尺不等；时间分辨率为16天。

The Landsat program is the longest-running enterprise for acquisition of satellite imagery of Earth. On July 23, 1972 the Earth Resources Technology Satellite was launched. This was eventually renamed to Landsat. The most recent, Landsat 8, was launched on February 11, 2013. The instruments on the Landsat satellites have acquired millions of images. The images, archived in the United States and at Landsat receiving stations around the world, are a unique resource for global change research and applications in agriculture, cartography, geology, forestry, regional planning, surveillance and education, and can be viewed through the USGS 'EarthExplorer' website. Landsat 7 data has eight spectral bands with spatial resolutions ranging from 15 to 60 meters; the temporal resolution is 16 days.