Landsat 10 will improve monitoring of dead vegetation

The U.S. Geological Survey said Tuesday 20 October 2026 that Landsat 10 is expected to launch in 2031. Researchers Phil Dennison and Mickey Campbell are focused on improving knowledge of non-photosynthetic vegetation, or NPV, which includes dead or weathered plant material.

Landsat 10 will have 26 spectral bands, an increase from the current 11 on both Landsat 8 and Landsat 9. The region measured by the SWIR2 band will be divided into three narrower bands at 20-meter spatial resolution. The changes will provide greater sensitivity to molecular absorption features and reveal finer details on the ground.

According to the announcement, the improvements will support crop residue mapping, moisture assessment and other applications. Landsat 10 will also have bands for monitoring NPV over time, studying drought stress and tracking how vegetation responds to drought.

The researchers plan to collect an extensive NPV cover training and test dataset. They also plan to develop an algorithm to compare Landsat 10 SWIR2 data with earlier Landsat missions. The work will use data from drones and satellites to simulate Landsat 10 bands and make non-photosynthetic cover predictions.

NPV often occurs at scales much smaller than a current Landsat pixel. Landsat data can cover large regions, but each pixel can contain a mix of vegetation types. Campbell said researchers must first map NPV at a very fine scale before mapping it at national, regional or global scales.

The researchers plan to map NPV in forests, grasslands and harvested fields across the United States. The data could help scientists monitor tree mortality, fire danger and the effects of insect attacks, drought, disease and increased fire activity. The Landsat Science Team provides scientific and technical evaluations to the USGS and NASA.