 Launched in February 2013, the Landsat 8 satellite carries the thermal infrared sensor, TIRS, a two-band thermal push-broom imager, to continue the thermal imaging capabilities of the Landsat program. The TIRS bands are centered at approximately 10.9 and 12 microns, bands 10 and 11 respectively. It has a 100 meter spatial resolution and images simultaneously with the operational land imager, OLI, also on board Landsat 8. The TIRS instrument has an internal calibration system consisting of a variable temperature blackbuddy and a special viewport with which it can see deep space, a two-point calibration can be performed twice per orbit. After launch, a rigorous vicarious calibration program was initiated to validate the absolute calibration of the system. Two vicarious calibration teams, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL and the Rochester Institute of Technology, RIT, both utilized buoys deployed on large water bodies as the primary monitoring technique. JPL took advantage of the fact that Landsat 8 and land. This article was authored by Julia A. Barsi, John R. Schott, Simon J. Hook, and others. We are article.tv, links in the description below.