Landsat’s Accuracy A Sharq El Owainat, Egypt story
Agriculture
Deserts
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.
Location
Apr. 23, 1985, Landsat 5 (path/row 177/44) — center pivot irrigation, near Sharq El Owainat airport, Egypt
Nov. 18, 1997, Landsat 5 (path/row 177/44) — center pivot irrigation, near Sharq El Owainat airport, Egypt
Feb. 9, 1999, Landsat 5 (path/row 177/44) — center pivot irrigation, near Sharq El Owainat airport, Egypt
Mar. 15, 2000, Landsat 5 (path/row 177/44) — center pivot irrigation, near Sharq El Owainat airport, Egypt
Feb. 14, 2001, Landsat 5 (path/row 177/44) — center pivot irrigation, near Sharq El Owainat airport, Egypt
Feb. 17, 2002, Landsat 5 (path/row 177/44) — center pivot irrigation, near Sharq El Owainat airport, Egypt
Feb. 4, 2009, Landsat 5 (path/row 177/44) — center pivot irrigation, near Sharq El Owainat airport, Egypt
Jan. 22, 2010, Landsat 5 (path/row 177/44) — center pivot irrigation, near Sharq El Owainat airport, Egypt
Feb. 24, 2016, Landsat 8 (path/row 177/44) — center pivot irrigation, near Sharq El Owainat airport, Egypt
Feb. 19, 2020, Landsat 8 (path/row 177/44) — center pivot irrigation, near Sharq El Owainat airport, Egypt
Sharq El Owainat, Egypt Additional Imagery & Stories
Earth As Art
The view of this region from Landsat is so fascinating, it’s the subject of two Earth As Art images. These and all Earth As Art images can be download...
Picking Calibration Sites
Engineers use test sites around the world to make sure Landsat imagery is consistent and accurate. These calibration test sites are regions on the Ear...
Watering the Sahara
One of the best test sites, named Egypt-2, was steadily reliable until around the late 1990s. In a vast expanse of Sahara Desert in southern Egypt, ce...