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Landsat 7 Cloud Cover Assessment Validation Data

By Landsat Missions

Landsat 7 Cloud Cover Assessment (CCA) validation data were created to validate CCA algorithms for Pre-Collection Landsat 7 ETM+ and Landsat 4-5 TM imagery. They were also used to develop new CCA algorithms for the Landsat 8 OLI instrument prior to the satellite's launch in 2013.

Return to Landsat Pre-Collection Cloud Cover Assessment Validation Datasets Overview

 

This collection of cloud validation data contains 206 Pre-Collection Landsat 7 ETM+ Level-1G scenes in .tif format, with associated manual cloud truth masks also in .tif format.  These scenes are stratified by latitude zone, and within each zone, there is one WRS path/row with multiple scenes to allow multiple views over the same area with varying cloud conditions.

102 scenes from this dataset were used in a cloud validation study described in Foga, Scaramuzza et al. (2017)1. The scenes used are indicated by "**" in the first column, below the biome name.

1 Foga, S., Scaramuzza, P.L., Guo, S., Zhu, Z., Dilley, R.D., Beckmann, T., Schmidt, G.L., Dwyer, J.L., Hughes, M.J. & Laue, B. (2017). Cloud detection algorithm comparison and validation for operational Landsat data products. Remote Sensing of Environment, 194, 379-390. doi: 10.1016/j.rse.2017.03.026.

Data citation

U.S. Geological Survey, 2016. L7 Irish Cloud Validation Masks. U.S. Geological Survey data release. doi:10.5066/F7XD0ZWC.

Scaramuzza, P.L., Bouchard, M.A. & Dwyer, J.L. (2012). Development of the Landsat data continuity mission cloud-cover assessment algorithms. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 50(4), 1140-1154. doi:10.1109/TGRS.2011.2164087.

Access Pre-Collection Landsat 7 Cloud Cover Assessment Validation Data