USGS EROS Archive - Landsat Collection 2 Level-3 Burned Area (BA) Science Product
Landsat Collection 2 Level-3 Burned Area (BA) contains two acquisition-based raster data products that represent burn classification and burn probability.
Dataset Citation
Please cite this dataset in the following manner:
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. (2022). Landsat Level-3 Burned Area, Collection 2 [dataset]. U.S. Geological Survey. https://doi.org/10.5066/P999KPGS
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) offers Landsat Collection 2 (C2) Level- 3 Burned Area (BA) science products for Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), and Landsat 4-5 Thematic Mapper (TM).
Landsat C2 BA science products are generated from Landsat C2 U.S. Analysis Ready Data (ARD) Surface Reflectance and Top of Atmosphere Brightness Temperature data, processed to 30-meter spatial resolution in Albers Equal Area (AEA) projection using the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84) datum, and gridded to a common tiling scheme.
The Landsat C2 BA science products are available for the conterminous United States for the following date ranges:
- Landsat 8 OLI: April 2013 to present
- Landsat 7 ETM+: July 1999 to present
- Landsat 5 TM: March 1984 to May 2012
- Landsat 4 TM: March 1984 to September 1992
Landsat 9 C2 BA products will become available later in 2022.
The map below displays the C2 ARD tile-based coverage of Landsat C2 BA products.
Most Landsat Collection 2 Level-1 scenes can be processed to generate a BA product. In addition to the caveats listed on the Landsat C2 ARD and C2 Surface Reflectance web pages.
- Only images with a RMSE less than 10 m and cloud cover less than 80 percent are processed to a Burned Area product.
- Some burned areas are occasionally flagged as water in BA products. If the input Level 2 Pixel QA (QA_PIXEL) band has flagged a pixel as “water, terrain, low-confidence cloud”, it will likely be flagged as water in the Burn Probability (BP) and Burn Classification (BC) bands. This usually happens when there are terrain shadows within the burned area.
- The product metadata files (.xml or .json) lists the band information for both the burn classification and burn probability. The metadata also lists the band information for the input Landsat U.S. ARD tile used to generate the BA science product.
Collection 2 Burned Area Product Improvements
While no major changes were made from C1 to C2 Burned Area, the following updates were made:
- Added a new Browse file to the BA product package
- Corrected a bug discovered in C1 where pixels in the top row (northern edge) and left column (western edge) of the Landsat U.S. ARD tile were incorrectly classified as not-burned in the BC layer
- Modification to allow BA to grow in a diagonal direction vs. just up/down and sideways
Retrained the model due to the Python 3 upgrade, which caused some very minor differences in the outputs
Additional Information
- Landsat Missions Collection 2 Burned Area webpage
- Landsat Collection 2 Level-3 Burned Area Data Format Control Book
- Landsat Collection 2 Level-3 Burned Area Algorithm Description Document
Access Data
Landsat Collection 2 Burned Area products are available for download from EarthExplorer. The data are located under the Landsat category, Landsat Collection 2 Level-3 Science Products subcategory, and listed as Landsat 4-8 C2 Burned Area. Visit the Landsat Data Access webpage for information about downloading C2 DSWE products.
The Landsat Data Access summary table provides information about all Landsat Collection 2 data access options.
Data Citation History
The preferred citation for this dataset was revised in 2024 to improve accuracy and alignment with USGS Fundamental Science Practices. The dataset digital object identifier (DOI) and version did not change.
Please cite this dataset in the following manner:
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. (2022). Landsat Level-3 Burned Area, Collection 2 [dataset]. U.S. Geological Survey. https://doi.org/10.5066/P999KPGS
The previously used citation shown below is provided here for historical reference only:
Earth Resources Observation And Science (EROS) Center. (2022). Collection-2 Landsat Level-3 Burned Area (BA) Science Product [dataset]. U.S. Geological Survey. https://doi.org/10.5066/P999KPGS
Below are other science projects associated with this product.
USGS EROS Archive - Landsat Archives - Landsat Collection 2 U.S Analysis Ready Data (ARD) Product
Landsat Collection 2 Level-3 Burned Area (BA) contains two acquisition-based raster data products that represent burn classification and burn probability.
Dataset Citation
Please cite this dataset in the following manner:
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. (2022). Landsat Level-3 Burned Area, Collection 2 [dataset]. U.S. Geological Survey. https://doi.org/10.5066/P999KPGS
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) offers Landsat Collection 2 (C2) Level- 3 Burned Area (BA) science products for Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), and Landsat 4-5 Thematic Mapper (TM).
Landsat C2 BA science products are generated from Landsat C2 U.S. Analysis Ready Data (ARD) Surface Reflectance and Top of Atmosphere Brightness Temperature data, processed to 30-meter spatial resolution in Albers Equal Area (AEA) projection using the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84) datum, and gridded to a common tiling scheme.
The Landsat C2 BA science products are available for the conterminous United States for the following date ranges:
- Landsat 8 OLI: April 2013 to present
- Landsat 7 ETM+: July 1999 to present
- Landsat 5 TM: March 1984 to May 2012
- Landsat 4 TM: March 1984 to September 1992
Landsat 9 C2 BA products will become available later in 2022.
The map below displays the C2 ARD tile-based coverage of Landsat C2 BA products.
Most Landsat Collection 2 Level-1 scenes can be processed to generate a BA product. In addition to the caveats listed on the Landsat C2 ARD and C2 Surface Reflectance web pages.
- Only images with a RMSE less than 10 m and cloud cover less than 80 percent are processed to a Burned Area product.
- Some burned areas are occasionally flagged as water in BA products. If the input Level 2 Pixel QA (QA_PIXEL) band has flagged a pixel as “water, terrain, low-confidence cloud”, it will likely be flagged as water in the Burn Probability (BP) and Burn Classification (BC) bands. This usually happens when there are terrain shadows within the burned area.
- The product metadata files (.xml or .json) lists the band information for both the burn classification and burn probability. The metadata also lists the band information for the input Landsat U.S. ARD tile used to generate the BA science product.
Collection 2 Burned Area Product Improvements
While no major changes were made from C1 to C2 Burned Area, the following updates were made:
- Added a new Browse file to the BA product package
- Corrected a bug discovered in C1 where pixels in the top row (northern edge) and left column (western edge) of the Landsat U.S. ARD tile were incorrectly classified as not-burned in the BC layer
- Modification to allow BA to grow in a diagonal direction vs. just up/down and sideways
Retrained the model due to the Python 3 upgrade, which caused some very minor differences in the outputs
Additional Information
- Landsat Missions Collection 2 Burned Area webpage
- Landsat Collection 2 Level-3 Burned Area Data Format Control Book
- Landsat Collection 2 Level-3 Burned Area Algorithm Description Document
Access Data
Landsat Collection 2 Burned Area products are available for download from EarthExplorer. The data are located under the Landsat category, Landsat Collection 2 Level-3 Science Products subcategory, and listed as Landsat 4-8 C2 Burned Area. Visit the Landsat Data Access webpage for information about downloading C2 DSWE products.
The Landsat Data Access summary table provides information about all Landsat Collection 2 data access options.
Data Citation History
The preferred citation for this dataset was revised in 2024 to improve accuracy and alignment with USGS Fundamental Science Practices. The dataset digital object identifier (DOI) and version did not change.
Please cite this dataset in the following manner:
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. (2022). Landsat Level-3 Burned Area, Collection 2 [dataset]. U.S. Geological Survey. https://doi.org/10.5066/P999KPGS
The previously used citation shown below is provided here for historical reference only:
Earth Resources Observation And Science (EROS) Center. (2022). Collection-2 Landsat Level-3 Burned Area (BA) Science Product [dataset]. U.S. Geological Survey. https://doi.org/10.5066/P999KPGS
Below are other science projects associated with this product.