Landsat's New TIRS Instrument Finishes Thermal Testing

When the next NASA Landsat satellites will launch to space, it will also carry the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) instrument, one of the most important components of its scientific suite. The sensor has now just finished its first round on thermal testing.

The assessment ended on Tuesday, October 4, inside a special test chamber at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), in Greenbelt, Maryland. The test took about two months to complete.

During its trials, the sensors was made to operated at temperatures of 43 Kelvin (-382° F, -230° C). This is the average temperature level at which TIRS will operate in Earth's orbit, the team explains.

TIRS' main goal is to “monitor water evaporation and transpiration over Earth's land surface by measuring radiation emitted in two thermal bands of the electromagnetic spectrum,” a NASA press release explains.