Landsat 1-2 Return Beam Vidicon Film Only: 1972-1983

The three-camera Return Beam Vidicon (RBV) that operated on Landsat satellites 1 and 2 acquired approximately 1600 sub-scenes at 80 meter resolution. The initial RBV sensor configuration used three independent cameras, each sensing a different spectral wavelength (0.48 to 0.83). Landsat 1 & 2 RBV data were recorded to 70 mm black & white film rolls at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and delivered to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center for archiving and user distribution. The RBV sensor utilized vidicon tube instruments containing an electron gun that read images from a photoconductive faceplate similar to television cameras. The data stream received from the satellite was analog-to-digital preprocessed to correct for radiometric and geometric errors. The RBV system was redesigned for Landsat 3 to use a two camera configuration mounted side by side that acquired four sub-scenes within the field of view of a Multispectral Scanner (MSS) scene. The Landsat 3 RBV spatial resolution is 40 meters. Landsat 3 data were also recorded to 70 mm film until the EROS Digital Imagery Processing System (EDIPS) became operational in 1979. EROS Laser Beam Recorders (LBR's) recorded MSS and RBV data at 28 micron to 9-inch film rolls and the imagery was chipped up for archival storage and remains a viable archive backup to the digital MSS archive. However, all of the RBV digital archive data were purged for lack of computer compatible reasons. Today, the RBV 70 mm and 9-inch film sources are maintained in the USGS EROS archive and are accessible through EarthExplorer as an on-demand film scanning product. RBV images that are scanned are used to generate browse and archive TIFF products that remain as no-cost options for all users. The RBV raw TIFF products are not georeferenced. They are black & white images that faithfully represent the Landsat RBV film archive as it exists today.