Return Beam Vidicon (RBV)

The Return Beam Vidicon (RBV) operated on Landsat satellites 1 and 2, and acquired approximately 1,600 sub-scenes at 80 meter resolution. The initial RBV sensor configuration used three independent cameras, each sensing a different spectral wavelength such as (0.48 to 0.83, 0.48 to 0.57, 0.58 to 0.68, and 0.70 to 0.83 micrometer). Landsat 1 and 2 RBV data were recorded to 70 millimeter (mm) black and white film rolls at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (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 with a spectral wavelength of 0.505 to 0.75 micrometer. 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 (LBRs) recorded MSS and RBV data at 28 microns 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. The last known collection of RBV tapes were disposed of in 2003. 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 and the black and white images faithfully represent the Landsat RBV film archive as it exists today.