The Sharq El Owainat airport is visible on the right side of these images. The runway appears in the 1997 image.

Landsat’s accuracy is key to other systems as well. Satellite sensors launched by other countries, cubesats launched by private companies, and sensors on NASA Earth-observing satellites benefit from the accurate Landsat calibration.

Calibration work may seem esoteric, but it makes the science application work possible. The work that solves problems couldn’t be done without the accuracy of the data. Landsat images are simply pretty pictures—until we calibrate them; then they become accurate datasets.