The Landsat 7 program uses the Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) and provides contiguous data from Landsat 1 program from the early 1970's to present (2012). Landsat-7 is the most recent of the series of Landsat satellites, having been launched on 15th April 1999. It has an anticipated mission lifetime of 5+ years. The spacecraft is about 14 feet long (4.3 meters) and 9 feet (2.8 meters) in diameter. It consists of a spacecraft bus, built by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space in Valley Forge, Pa., and the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) instrument, developed by Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing, California. The ETM+ (extended thematic mapper) sensor is an eight band multi-spectral scanning radiometer providing high-resolution images of the earth, detecting visible, near-infrared, short wave and thermal infrared frequency bands. The orbit follows that of earlier Landsat satellites and thus provides continuity of earth surface coverage claimed to be unparalleled by any other instrument. It possesses a worldwide reference system operating to a tolerance of +- 0.05 degrees that catalogues the earth's surface into 57,784 scenes each 183km by 170 km. Landsat data is widely used in many fields including geology, agriculture, resource management, climate analysis etc. The program is jointly run by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the US Geological Survey (USGS). The NERC Earth Observation Data Centre (NEODC) now also holds the data.

Note: Gaining access to the Landsat 4/5 TM data will also automatically give you access to the Landsat 4/5 TM data also held at the NEODC