Landsat Data Continuity Mission: The Long Swath by NASA Earth Observatory

On April 12, 2013, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) reached its final orbit, 705 kilometers (438 miles) above Earth. One week later, the satellite's natural-color imager scanned a swath of land 185-kilometers wide and 9,000 kilometers long (120 by 6,000 miles)--an unusual, unbroken distance considering 70 percent of Earth is covered with water. That flight path afforded us the chance to assemble 56 still images into a seamless, flyover view of what LDCM saw on April 19, 2013. Stretching from northern Russia to South Africa, the full mosaic from the Operational Land Imager can be browsed here.

For more information, visit earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/LDCMLongSwath/?src=gigapan