Features

Image from TERRA
NASA Data Powers New USDA Soil Moisture Portal
Mon, 08 Mar 2021 12:00 EST

Farmers, researchers, meteorologists and others now have access to high-resolution NASA data on soil moisture, thanks to a new tool developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) in collaboration with NASA and George Mason University.

Image from TERRA
A Steady DRIP with NASA Satellites
Thu, 04 Feb 2021 10:00 EST

NASA satellite data helps people maintain thousands of freshwater pumps by highlighting places in Africa most at-risk for drought.

Image from TERRA
Beating Back the Tides
Thu, 05 Nov 2020 13:05 EST

Annapolis, Maryland; Norfolk, Virginia; and Miami were originally built and mapped to provide enough protection against flooding, but sea level rise has caused that buffer to shrink.

Home › About Terra

About Terra

Approximately the size of a small school bus, the Terra satellite carries five instruments that take coincident measurements of the Earth system:

Terra is in a circular sun-synchronous polar orbit that takes it from north to south (on the daylight side of the Earth) every 99 minutes.

Spacecraft Quick Facts:
  • Launch Date: December 18,1999
  • Size: the spacecraft bus is 6.8 m long and 3.5 m across.
  • Weight: 5,190 kg (11,442 lbs.) at launch.

KSC-99PP-1412_web
Orbit Quick Facts: 
  • Altitude: 705 kilometers (438 miles) above Earth’s surface
  • Inclination: 98.5 degrees
  • Period: 99 minutes (14 complete orbits per day)
  • Ground track repeat: 16 days
  • Equatorial crossing: 10:30 a.m., descending mode

Terra Status:

  • Operating instruments: ASTER, CERES, MODIS, MISR, and MOPITT are operating well.  ASTER Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) data is unavailable.
  • Current systems issues: None.
  • Processed Terra data are available through several NASA data centers.
  • Current life expectancy: Terra  has far exceeded its design life and has a strong chance of operating successfully into the early 2020s. Terra began drifting in February of 2020. Read more about Terra’s drifting or see key dates below.

Key dates of Drift

  • Exceed 10:30 MLT (+/- 1 min) – April 2021*
  • Exceed 10:15 MLT – October 2022*
  • Constellation Exit – October 2022*
  • Exceed 9:00 MLT – December 2025*

Passivation dates are not yet determined, but passivation is expected to take place due to signal to noise limits from lower solar zenith angles, limited battery power from changing solar angle on the solar panels, or programmatic funding limits.

*Dates are subject to change.