USGS EROS Archive - Landsat Archives - Landsat 1-5 Multispectral Scanner Collection 2 Level-1 Data Active

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The Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) sensor was carried onboard Landsat 1 through Landsat 5 and acquired images of the Earth nearly continuously from July 1972 to October 1992. In June 2012, the MSS sensor was powered back on to see if data could be acquired, and the sensor collected nearly 20,000 scenes until January 2013.

Landsats 1, 2 and 3 had an 18-day revisit cycle on the Worldwide Reference System-1.  Landsats 4 and 5 maintained a 16-day revisit cycle, and followed the Worldwide Reference System-2.

Standard Processing Parameters

All Landsat 1-5 MSS Collection 2 Level-1 data are processed through the Landsat Product Generation System (LPGS) with the following parameters applied:  

While many Landsat MSS scenes are processed to full Terrain Precision Correction (L1TP), some scenes do not have the ground control or elevation data necessary to perform these corrections. In these cases, the best level of correction is applied. (See Landsat Processing Details for details on correction levels.)

Specific terrain precision corrected scenes are available for most of the globe under the Global Land Surveys (GLS) collections of 1975, 1990, 2000, 2005, and 2010. These datasets can be found on EarthExplorer or the USGS Global Visualization Viewer (GloVis).

Landsat 1-5 MSS Collection-2 Level-1 Data

Landsat Tiers are the inventory structure for Landsat Collection 2 Level-1 data and are based on data quality and level of processing. All scenes in the Landsat archive are assigned to a Collection category. The purpose of Collection categories is to support rapid and easy identification of suitable scenes for time-series pixel level analysis. These data have well-characterized radiometric quality and are cross-calibrated ​among the different Landsat sensors.​​​

Collection 2 Categories

• Tier 1 (T1) - Contains the highest quality Level-1 Terrain Precision (L1TP) data considered sutable for time-series analysis. The georegistration is consistent and within prescribed tolerances [<12m root mean square error (RMSE)].
• Tier 2 (T2) - Contains L1TP scenes not meeting Tier 1 criteria and all Systematic Terrain (L1GT) and Geometric Systematic (L1GS) scenes.  Users interested in Tier 2 scenes can evalutate the RMSE and other properties to determine suitability for use in their applications and studies.

The Landsat Collections page contains additional information about changes applied to Landsat Level-1 data for Collection 2.

Additional Information

• Landsat Collection 2
• Landsat FAQs 
• Technical Information (Including calibration and definitive ephemeris files) 
• Project Documentation 
• USGS Landsat - Earth Observations Satellite Fact Sheet 

Access Data

Landsat 1-5 MSS Collection 2 Level-1 scenes held in the USGS archive can be searched using EarthExplorer.  On EarthExplorer, Collection 2 Landsat 1 - 5 MSS scenes can be found under the Landsat menu in the “Landsat Collection 2 Level-1 ” section, in the “Landsat 1-5 MSS C2 L1” dataset.

Some Landsat 1 - 5 MSS scenes outside the United States were collected and archived at International Ground Stations.  The Landsat Global Archive Consolidation (LGAC) effort continues to bring this data back to the USGS archive.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Collection 2 Landsat 1-5 MSS Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number: /10.5066/P9AF14YV