Landsat Collection 2 Reprocessing Events
Collection 2 reprocessing events for Landsat 1-9 are listed below. The USGS recommends that users consider replacing any already downloaded Landsat data and subsequently derived products with newly reprocessed data products. Please note that when a scene is reprocessed, the Product Identifier is updated to reflect the most recent processing date.
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July 19, 2023 — Moon Intrusion Forces Reprocessing of Landsat 9, Landsat 8 Scenes
The USGS/NASA Landsat Calibration and Validation Team (CVT) has recently identified additional Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 scenes that were impacted by the presence of the Moon in the calibration data.
Thirty-seven Landsat 9 and 342 Landsat 8 Level-1 scenes were reprocessed on July 17 and July 18, 2023.
When the moon intrudes into the view of the satellites’ Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) while acquiring Deep Space calibration data, this causes an over-estimation of bias of affected detectors and results in dark streaks through the thermal image data. The data collected by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) onboard both satellites are not affected by the moon intrusion.
For more information please see the July 19, 2023 Landsat Headline.
July 12, 2023 — Landsat 9 Reprocessing Changes Thermal Data
While conducting standard Landsat Collection 2 Level-1 Landsat product validation, the USGS Calibration/Validation Team at the EROS Center discovered that a corrupt Bias Parameter File (BPF) was applied to Landsat 9 Level-1 data that were acquired on June 30th and July 1st, 2023.
On Wednesday July 12th, 2023, fifty-five Landsat 9 scenes were reprocessed to apply the correct BPF to the impacted data – these updates then propagated through the USGS Level-2 and Level-3 data processing systems as well.
Note: This affects the data from the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) only; Operational Land Imager (OLI) data were not affected with this reprocessing.
Data from these Landsat 9 scenes were reprocessed:
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Path 77 Rows 230–244
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Path 93 Rows 10–88
Please note that as data are reprocessed, each scene's Product Identifier will be updated to reflect the most recent processing date.
May 19, 2023 – Additional recent Landsat 9 calibration data affected by Moon intrusion discovered; data reprocessed
After the discovery of the Moon intruding into the view of the Landsat 9 TIRS sensor on May 10 (see the May 12 item below), the USGS/NASA Landsat Calibration and Validation Team reviewed data acquired earlier in 2023, and discovered that a total of 193 scenes from the following intervals were also affected by moon intrusion:
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March 10-11, 2023: Path 29 (52 scenes)
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March 13, 2023: Paths 107, 139, 155 (106 scenes)
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April 10, 2023: Paths 54, 70, 86, 102 (35 scenes)
These data have been reprocessed and the associated products are available for download.
As with data reprocessed in the past, the USGS recommends users consider replacing any already downloaded Landsat 9 data and subsequently derived products from these dates with these newly reprocessed data products. The Product ID contains the most recent processing date that will facilitate identification of all scenes included in this reprocessing effort.
May 12, 2023 — Landsat 9 Data Acquired May 10, 2023 Reprocessed
The USGS/NASA Landsat Calibration and Validation Team discovered that four Landsat 9 Earth image intervals acquired on May 10, 2023, were impacted by the presence of the Moon in the calibration data.
When the moon intrudes into the view of the Landsat 9 Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) while acquiring Deep Space calibration data, this causes an over-estimation of bias of affected detectors and results in dark streaks through the thermal image data (see the example image). The imagery collected by the Landsat 9 Operational Land Imager (OLI) are not affected by such events.
This issue impacted the thermal data of 98 Landsat 9 Collection 2 scenes acquired on May 10, 2023, between 9:38 a.m. CDT (14:38z) and 5:10 p.m. CDT (22:10z). Data acquired along WRS-2 Paths 8, 56, 72, and 88 were affected.
The affected Landsat 9 scenes were reprocessed on May 11, and are available on all USGS data access portals. Note: the thermal browse images for these scenes may be delayed in being updated.
For more information please see the May 12, 2023 Landsat Headline.
March 1, 2023 - Reprocessing of all Landsat 9 Data
Landsat 9 Collection 2 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) data from the first year of operations will be reprocessed starting Wednesday, March 1, 2023. This reprocessing effort will take advantage of calibration updates identified by the USGS/NASA Calibration and Validation team. Reprocessing is expected to take approximately 6-8 weeks. Read more about this reprocessing event in the Landsat Mission Headline.
July 13, 2022 – Select Landsat 8 Scenes Acquired on May 17, 2022
Fifty-eight Landsat 8 scenes acquired from WRS-2 Paths 95, 111, and 127 from May 17, 2022 (DOY137) were reprocessed on July 12, 2022.
A one-time issue with commanding of the Landsat 8 spacecraft and instruments caused larger than expected offsets within the geodetic accuracy of the image products that did not allow the data to correctly process to a precision corrected Level-1 (L1TP) product. The scenes that were impacted by this issue were reprocessed with the appropriate processing parameters to account for this unexpected offset and are now available as L1TPs.
The Level-1 reprocessed are listed in this spreadsheet. Please note that as data are reprocessed, each scene's Product Identifier is updated to reflect the most recent processing date
July 6, 2022 – Landsat 9 Data Acquired from June 20-21, 2022
The Landsat Calibration and Validation Team identified 130 Landsat 9 scenes acquired from June 20-21, 2022, over a period of nine hours, that were affected with the presence of the Moon in the data.
The presence of the Moon in deep space data causes errors in estimation of background response of the affected detectors, which leads to creation of dark streaks in Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) imagery. Landsat 9 Operational Land Imager (OLI) bands were not impacted.
The 130 Landsat 9 scenes were reprocessed on July 6, 2022. The Level-1 Landsat 4-8 scenes reprocessed are listed in this spreadsheet. Please note that as data are reprocessed, each scene's Product Identifier is updated to reflect the most recent processing date
June 2, 2022 – Select Landsat Collection 2 Level-1 Data from 1984 to 2020
Select Landsat Collection 2 Level-1 data from 1984 to 2020 were reprocessed on June 2, 2022, due to an intermittent issue that did not allow them to be processed to Level-2 science products. These scenes were regenerated using the same calibration parameters as the previous Level-1 version.
Reprocessing allowed for the Collection 2 Level-1 scenes to propagate through to Collection 2 Level-2 products, Collection 2 U.S. Analysis Ready Data (ARD), and Collection 2 Level-3 science products that were not previously available.
Overall, 188 Landsat 4-5 Thematic Mapper (TM), 14 Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), and 292 Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager/Thermal Infrared Sensor (OLI/TIRS) scenes were reprocessed.
The Level-1 Landsat 4-8 scenes reprocessed are listed in this spreadsheet. Please note that as data are reprocessed, each scene's Product Identifier is updated to reflect the most recent processing date.
April 7, 2022 – Landsat 9 Data Acquired from March 22-24, 2022
The USGS/NASA Landsat Flight Operations and Landsat Calibration and Validation Team identified Landsat 9 calibration intervals acquired from March 22-24, 2022, that were affected with the presence of the Moon in the data.
This caused an over-estimation of bias of affected detectors, resulting in darker streaks in Landsat 9 TIRS image data (see example image below). Landsat 9 OLI bands were not affected. This issue impacted 942 Landsat 9 Collection 2 scenes (30 hours of Earth imaging acquired between 3/22/2022 22:51 UTC and 3/24/2022 06:06 UTC).
The affected Landsat 9 scenes were reprocessed from April 6 - 7, 2022. As a result, reprocessing of the Level-1 products will propagate through to all Collection 2 Level-2 products for the same period. These scenes will become available on all USGS data access portals upon successful completion.
The USGS recommends that users consider replacing any already downloaded Landsat 9 data and subsequently derived products from March 22, 2022 to March 24, 2022 with these newly reprocessed data products. Please note, the Product ID contains the most recent processing date that will facilitate identification of all scenes included in this reprocessing effort.
March 26, 2021 - Landsat 8 Data Acquired from November 1, 2020, to February 19, 2021
USGS and NASA calibration and validation engineers observed a slow reduction in the radiometric response from Landsat 8's TIRS after November 01, 2020. To correct for this issue, Landsat 8 images acquired from November 1, 2020 to February 19, 2021 were reprocessed into Collection 2 and Collection 1 Level-1 tiered products with the new TIRS calibration parameters applied. These newly reprocessed Landsat 8 data have propagated through and into the Landsat Collection 2 Level-2 products, Collection 1 U.S. Analysis Ready Data (ARD), and Collection 1 Level-3 science products.
The USGS recommends that users consider replacing any already downloaded Landsat 8 data and subsequently derived products from November 1, 2020 to February 19, 2021 with these newly reprocessed data products. Please note, the Product ID contains the processing date that will facilitate identification of all scenes or ARD tiles included in this reprocessing effort.
February 17, 2021 - Landsat 8 Collection 2 Data Acquired from November 1-2, 2015
An investigation into this event determined that a software update made to the TIRS Scene Select Mechanism (SSM) encoder disabled the process that was used to correct a previous SSM encoder hardware anomaly. This caused the upper bits of the SSM encoder to become fixed in an “on” state. This led to an incorrectly calculated TIRS SSM angle, which resulted in OLI and TIRS spectral band misalignment of the images listed in the table below.
The Landsat 8 scenes being reprocessed are listed in this spreadsheet. Please note that as data are reprocessed, each scene's Product Identifier will be updated to reflect the most recent processing date.
October 19, 2020 - Landsat 8 Collection 2 Data Acquired from December 12 – 19, 2019
While conducting validation of data processing, the USGS Calibration/Validation team at the EROS Center discovered that corrupt Bias Parameter Files (BPFs) were applied to Landsat 8 Collection 1 Level-1 data that were acquired prior to, and during a satellite safehold event that occurred on December 19, 2019. (Visit this LWMS Headline for more information about the safehold event.)
To correct this issue 4,764 Landsat 8 scenes acquired from December 12, 2019 (DOY 346) to December 19, 2019 (DOY 353) were reprocessed to apply the correct BPFs in the impacted Landsat Collection 1 Level-1 data – these updates then propagated through the USGS Level-2 and Level-3 data processing systems as well.
The Landsat 8 scenes being reprocessed are listed in this spreadsheet. Please note that as data are reprocessed, each scene's Product Identifier will be updated to reflect the most recent processing date.