Landsat Collection 2 Full Resolution Browse Images

By Landsat Missions

Landsat Full Resolution Browse (FRB) images are created for quick and efficient image selection and for visual interpretation.

FRB files are created from Landsat 1- 9 Level-1 data products, and distributed in Cloud Optimized Geographic Tagged Image File Format (GeoTIFF) (COG) and Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG).

L8 Collection 2 Full Resolution Browse Samples: Reflective, Thermal, and Quality Band — These images are examples of Landsat Collection 2 Full Resolution Browse images. From left to right: Reflective browse image, Thermal browse image, and Quality Band browse image. Images created from Landsat 8 data (Path 27 Row 27) acquired October 24, 2015.

Landsat Collection 2 Full Resolution Browse images can be downloaded as individual files for Landsat 1 through Landsat 9 scenes from EarthExplorer.

Landsat Collection 2 Reflective Full Resolution Browse: a .jpg composite of three bands to show a “natural” looking (false color) image. Reflectance values were calculated from the calibrated scaled digital number (DN) image data. The reflectance values were scaled to a 1-255 range using a gamma stretch with a gamma=2.0. This stretch was designed to emphasize vegetation without clipping the extreme values.

Landsat 8-9 OLI = Bands 6,5,4
Landsat 7 ETM+ and Landsat 4-5 TM = Bands 5,4,3
Landsat 4-5 MSS = Bands 2,4,1
Landsat 1-3 MSS = Bands 5,7,4

Landsat Collection 2 Thermal Full Resolution Browse: a one-band gray scale .jpg image that displays thermal properties of a Landsat scene. Image brightness temperature values were calculated from the calibrated scaled digital number (DN) image data. An image specific 2 percent clip and a linear stretch to 1-255 were applied to the brightness temperature values.

Landsat 8-9 TIRS = Band 10
Landsat 7 ETM+ = Band 6.1-high gain
Landsat 4-5 TM = Band 6
Landsat 1-5 MSS = not available

Landsat Collection 2 Quality Full Resolution Browse: 8-bit files generated from the Landsat Level-1 Quality Band to provide a quick view of the quality of the pixels within the scene to determine if a particular scene would work best for the user's application. This file includes values representing bit-packed combinations of surface, atmosphere, and sensor conditions that can affect the overall usefulness of a given pixel. Color mapping assignments can be seen in the image below.

Landsat Collection 2 Full Resolution Browse Quality Image Designations — Quality Image designations and associated colors for Landsat Collection 2 Full Resolution Browse 8-bit images.

Documentation

LSDS-1823 Landsat Full Resolution Browse Data Format Control Book (DFCB)