Earth Science

Landsat 5

Orbiter · Directed · Agency-led · Launched on March 1, 1984 · Completed · LCC: $275M/$1.4B (2025 $)Life-cycle cost: NASA’s reported cost to build, launch, and operate a mission through its prime mission, plus documented partner contributions, in 2025 dollars. Extended missions are not included. Methods · Wikipedia

Scope Active Mission WindowActivePapers published from the first full month after science operations begin through two years after the mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. For Landsat 5, papers published April 1, 1984 to July 1, 2015. Methods LifetimeLifetimeEvery tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. For Landsat 5, papers published from 1985 to November 3, 2026. Methods
Tracked publicationsTracked publications: peer-reviewed papers we found that name the mission or its instruments in their titles, abstracts, or keywords. Papers that used the data without naming it are missed. Methods996
CitationsCitations: every citation these publications have drawn to date. Older missions have had longer to collect them. Methods31,071
Citation indices
h-indexh-index: the largest h such that h papers have at least h citations each. It only grows with time, so older missions score higher. Methods80
g-indexg-index: the largest g for which the g most-cited papers together hold at least g² citations. Like the h-index, but it lets the most-cited papers count for more. Methods140
m-indexm-index: a mission’s h-index divided by the years since its first peer-reviewed paper. It falls every 1 January even when nothing else changes; the figure shown is as of November 3, 2026. It also discounts the long operating life that larger missions paid for. Methods1.9
toritori (total research impact, from SciX): for every paper citing one of the mission’s papers, 1 divided by the citing paper’s reference count times the cited paper’s author count, summed, with self-citations removed. It favors citations from papers with short reference lists and from outside the mission’s own authors. Computed over the tracked citation graph, which can be slightly incomplete. Always over every tracked publication to date, whichever scope is chosen. Methods322
riqriq (research impact quotient): 1,000 times the square root of tori, divided by the years since the mission’s first paper. A rate, not a total, so it does not keep growing with age the way the h-index and tori do. Like tori, always over every tracked publication to date. Methods427

Publications and citations by year (lifetime)

Publications per yearCumulative citations

Institutional contributions (lifetime)The institutions SciX lists for each paper’s authors, as printed on the paper, located through the Research Organization Registry. A square counts a paper once, however many of its authors worked there. Methods

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Tracked publications over the lifetime (996)

All publications CSV · JSON

  1. An assessment of the effectiveness of a random forest classifier for land-cover classification

    Rodriguez-Galiano, V. F., 2012, JPRS

    1,842 lifetime citations

  2. Land surface temperature retrieval from LANDSAT TM 5

    Sobrino, José A., 2004, RSEnv

    1,577 lifetime citations

  3. Revised Landsat-5 TM Radiometric Calibration Procedures and Postcalibration Dynamic Ranges

    Chander, Gyanesh, 2003, ITGRS

    613 lifetime citations

  4. The global Landsat archive: Status, consolidation, and direction

    Wulder, Michael A., 2016, RSEnv

    593 lifetime citations

  5. The Global Mangrove Watch—A New 2010 Global Baseline of Mangrove Extent

    Bunting, Pete, 2018, RemS

    506 lifetime citations

  6. Revision of the Single-Channel Algorithm for Land Surface Temperature Retrieval from Landsat Thermal-Infrared Data

    Jiménez-Muñoz, Juan C., 2009, ITGRS

    467 lifetime citations

  7. Landsat continuity: Issues and opportunities for land cover monitoring

    Wulder, Michael A., 2008, RSEnv

    415 lifetime citations

  8. Landsat: Building a strong future

    Loveland, Thomas R., 2012, RSEnv

    339 lifetime citations

  9. Fmask 4.0: Improved cloud and cloud shadow detection in Landsats 4-8 and Sentinel-2 imagery

    Qiu, Shi, 2019, RSEnv

    319 lifetime citations

  10. Land use/land cover change detection and prediction in the north-western coastal desert of Egypt using Markov-CA

    Halmy, Marwa Waseem A., 2015, AppGe

    303 lifetime citations

  11. Radiometric cross-calibration of the Landsat-7 ETM+ and Landsat-5 TM sensors based on tandem data sets

    Teillet, P. M., 2001, RSEnv

    269 lifetime citations

  12. Radiometric normalization of multitemporal high-resolution satellite images with quality control for land cover change detection

    Du, Yong, 2002, RSEnv

    255 lifetime citations

  13. Retrieval of wet snow by means of multitemporal SAR data

    Nagler, T., 2000, ITGRS

    242 lifetime citations

  14. Landsat Sensor Performance: History and Current Status

    Markham, Brian L., 2004, ITGRS

    241 lifetime citations

  15. Mapping seagrass species, cover and biomass in shallow waters: An assessment of satellite multi-spectral and airborne hyper-spectral imaging systems in Moreton Bay (Australia)

    Phinn, Stuart, 2008, RSEnv

    228 lifetime citations

  16. Evaluation of Landsat and MODIS data fusion products for analysis of dryland forest phenology

    Walker, J. J., 2012, RSEnv

    228 lifetime citations

  17. Forty-year calibrated record of earth-reflected radiance from Landsat: A review

    Markham, Brian L., 2012, RSEnv

    206 lifetime citations

  18. Evaluation of the Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-7 ETM + surface reflectance products

    Claverie, Martin, 2015, RSEnv

    199 lifetime citations

  19. Estimating the leaf area index of North Central Wisconsin forests using the landsat thematic mapper

    Fassnacht, Karin S., 1997, RSEnv

    191 lifetime citations

  20. Comparison of remote sensing data, model results and in situ data for total suspended matter (TSM) in the southern Frisian lakes

    Dekker, A. G., 2001, ScTEn

    184 lifetime citations

How we found these papers

We searched NASA’s Science Explorer (SciX) for peer-reviewed articles naming Landsat 5 in the title, abstract or keywords; standard filters drop articles that are not peer-reviewed and magazine pieces.

((=abs:"Landsat-5" OR =abs:"Landsat 4-5" OR =abs:"Landsats 5" OR =abs:"Landsats 4 5" OR =abs:"Landsat TM5" OR =abs:"Landsat TM 5" OR =abs:"Thematic Mapper 5" OR =abs:"Thematic Mapper TM 5" OR =abs:"Landsat satellites 5" OR =abs:"Landsat satellite 5" OR =abs:"Landsat missions 5" OR =abs:"Landsat series 5" OR =abs:"Landsat 2 5" OR =abs:"Landsat 7 5" OR =abs:"Landsat 8 5" OR =abs:"Landsat 1 5" OR =abs:"Landsat 4 7" OR =abs:"Landsat 4 8" OR =abs:"Landsats 4 8" OR =abs:"Landsat 4 9")) AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[1984-04 TO 2040-01] AND NOT bibstem:("A&R" OR "ACPD" OR "AIASJ" OR "AMTD" OR "AeAm" OR "AirSp" OR "AsNow" OR "AsUAI" OR "AvWST" OR "BGD" OR "C&E" OR "C&T" OR "CAPJ" OR "CliPD" OR "E&S" OR "ENews" OR "ESDD" OR "ESSDD" OR "ESuDD" OR "GID" OR "GMDD" OR "GeCAS" OR "HESSD" OR "IrAJ" OR "JCos" OR "JRASC" OR "LAstr" OR "MNSSA" OR "Met" OR "NHESD" OR "NPGD" OR "NewSc" OR "OcScD" OR "Orion" OR "PhT" OR "PhTea" OR "PhuZ" OR "PhyOJ" OR "PhyW" OR "PlR" OR "SOILD" OR "SciAm" OR "SpFl" OR "TCD" OR "ZemVs")

Open in SciX

Added after review (1)

  1. Thematic Mapper Data Used for Rangeland Management in Rough Fescue Grasslands in Western Canada Mission's first published science result: Thematic Mapper imagery used to map rangeland condition in western Canada. Decision 🤖

Removed after review (4)

  1. A video system capable of simulating Landsat TM 5, 4, 3 imagery "TM 5, 4, 3" refers to Thematic Mapper bands; does not name Landsat 5. Decision 🤖
  2. Spectral reflectance measurements in the genus Sphagnum "Thematic Mapper 5/4" refers to a band ratio; does not name Landsat 5. Decision 🤖
  3. Impacts of urbanization on soil organic carbon stocks in the northeast coastal agricultural areas of China "Landsat TM5" refers to Thematic Mapper band 5; does not name Landsat 5. Decision 🤖
  4. Gap-filling of land surface temperature in arid regions by combining Landsat 8 and 9 imageries The text "Landsat 8 and 5.4 °C" matches; does not name Landsat 5. Decision 🤖