Landsat 9 Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 Characterization Plan Overview

Landsat 9 will continue the Landsat data record into its fifth decade with a near-copy build of Landsat 8 with launch scheduled for December 2020. The two instruments on Landsat 9 are Thermal Infrared Sensor-2 (TIRS-2) and Operational Land Imager-2(OLI-2). TIRS-2 is a two channel pushbroom imager with a 15-degree field of view that will have a 16-day measurement cadence from its nominal 705-km orbit altitude. Its carefully developed instrument performance requirements and associated characterization plan will result in stable and well understood science-quality imagery that will be used for environmental, economic and legal applications. This paper will present a summary of the plan for TIRS-2 prelaunch characterization at the component, subsystem, and instrument level.