tirs

TIRS, or Thermal Infrared Sensor, is a dual-band thermal infrared instrument aboard the Landsat 8 satellite. Developed for NASA and operated in partnership with the USGS, TIRS collects thermal radiation from Earth's surface in two spectral bands to support the estimation of land surface temperature and related thermal processes.

The instrument captures two thermal infrared bands roughly in the 10.6–11.2 μm and 11.5–12.5 μm ranges, with a nominal spatial resolution of 100 meters and a swath width of about 185 kilometers.

Calibration and data products: TIRS uses on-board blackbody references and a space view to perform radiometric calibration, delivering scene radiance that can be converted to brightness temperature and, with emissivity corrections, to land surface temperature. Data are processed to standard Landsat product levels by USGS.

Mission and impact: TIRS is part of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission designed to maintain a continuous record of global land imagery following Landsat 7. It complements the OLI instrument to provide comprehensive multispectral and thermal information for applications such as drought monitoring, urban heat studies, agriculture, forestry, hydrology, and climate research.

Notes: Data require atmospheric correction and careful handling of emissivity; cross-calibration with other thermal sensors is used to maintain consistency across Landsat missions.