Land Imaging Capabilities, Data, and Products
We compile detailed information about U.S., international, and commercial land imaging satellite systems, and provide access to a variety of land imaging data and data products.
Land Imaging Capabilities and Data Quality Assessments
In cooperation with the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) CalVal Center of Excellence (ECCOE) Team, we provides independent technical characterization and quality assessments of remotely sensed data generated by a broad variety of remote sensing systems. These assessments include geometric, radiometric, and spatial characterizations, as well as identifying artifacts that may affect the use of data and resulting products.
More details about the work described below can be viewed on https://www.usgs.gov/calval/data-quality-assessment.
The Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) Earth Observing Satellites Online Compendium includes current, planned, and even retired land imaging satellites systems across the full range of platforms and sensor types. The systems information is routinely updated and expanded as needed.
System Characterization Reports contain information as independent measures of basic system performance by completing the geometric, radiometric, and spatial characterization. The results of these assessments are a snapshot in time.
Graphics displaying the number of commercial and/or government/civil land remote sensing satellites launched, and the number of LRS satellites launched each year are updated regularly. The data represented in these images are gathered from various sources.
USGS Land Imaging Data and Products
USGS Landsat Science Products include the higher-level products shown below (Left to Right): Surface Reflectance, Surface Temperature, Dynamic Surface Water Extent, Burned Area, and Fractional Snow Covered Area. These images were created using data from U.S. Landsat Analysis Ready Data (ARD) Tile H004V002, acquired July 23, 2017.
EarthExplorer
Commercial Cloud Access
ESPA On Demand Interface
GloVis
LandsatLook Viewer
LANDSAT DATA ACCESS INFORMATION
- EarthExplorer (EE): Search the Landsat archive along with dozens of other imagery and elevation datasets. The graphical interface can be used to define areas of interest by selecting an area on the map, or entering an address, zip code, or by place name.
- Commercial Cloud Access: Landsat data is accessible from the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform. Visit the Landsat Commercial Cloud Data Access page for more information.
- Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center Science Processing Architecture (ESPA) On-Demand Interface: Allows users to request surface reflectance-based vegetation, moisture, burn ratio and snow indices.
- GloVis: Visualization tool that provides access to select datasets within the USGS remote sensing archive.
- LandsatLook Viewer: Visualization client that enables users to create dynamic custom Landsat mosaics, customize mosaic using three band combinations, and select spectral indices and quality assessment band filtering.
Visit the Landsat Data Access page for more details about these portals.
Supporting Data and Products
NASA’s Application for Extracting and Exploring Analysis Ready Samples (AρρEEARS) offers users a simple and efficient way to perform data access and transformation processes. By enabling users to subset data spatially, temporally, and by layer, the volume of data downloaded for analysis is greatly reduced.
Global Food Security-Support Analysis Data at 30m (GFSAD30)
This NASA funded project provides high-resolution global cropland data and their water use that contributes towards global food security in the twenty-first century.
Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS)
This project, an extension of research conducted at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, takes input data from the joint NASA/USGS Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 and the European Space Agency Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B satellites to generate a harmonized, analysis-ready surface reflectance data product with observations every two to three days.
Joint Research Centre (JRC) Global Surface Water
The European Commission's JRC developed this Landsat-based dataset to map the location and temporal distribution of water surfaces at the global scale over the past 32 years and provides statistics on the extent and change of those water surfaces.
CRSSP Imagery-Derived Requirements (CIDR) Entry Tool
The CRSSP Imagery-Derived Requirements (CIDR) Entry Tool allows U.S. Federal Agencies to enter image requirements, review existing requirements, or explore potential data partnerships.
NASA Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program
Established by NASA's Earth Science Division, CSDA helps identify, evaluate, and acquire commercial small-satellite (smallsat) data that support NASA's Earth science research and application goals.
A multi-agency supported portal that uses the best available science to provide easily accessible satellite-based estimates of evapotranspiration (ET) for improved water management across the western United States. Open ET provides open, easily accessible satellite-based ET data for improved water management.