Landsat Collection 2 data can be accessed from the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform. Leveraging the data storage and processing capabilities that cloud services provide offers new ways to explore the growing record of Landsat observations.
Return to Landsat Data Access Overview
Landsat Collection 2 Level-1 data, Level-2 and Level-3 scene-based products, and Landsat U.S. Analysis Ready Data (ARD) are located in an Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) s3://usgs-landsat requester pays bucket within the Oregon us-west-2 region. (Note: this capability does not change existing user data access or workflows.)
Tutorials
The following files are available to guide users while working with Landsat data in the AWS cloud. Each tutorial includes the Jupyter Notebook (.ipynb) file, along with .html output file. Additional tutorials will be added as they are developed.
- Landsat Cloud Direct Access Requester Pays Tutorial (.zip)
- Discover Landsat Data Using the Landsat SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) (.zip)
Simple Notification Service (SNS) Topic
The following Amazon Resource Names (ARN) are for Amazon SNS topics that provide notifications whenever a new Landsat products have been added to Landsat on AWS: Learn more about subscribing to SNS topics
Effective June 27, 2023, new SNS topics are available:
- arn:aws:sns:us-west-2:673253540267:public-c2-notify-v2 (Level-1 and Level-2 Scenes)
- arn:aws:sns:us-west-2:673253540267:public-c2-level-3-tile-notify-v2 (Level 3 Science Products)
- arn:aws:sns:us-west-2:673253540267:public-c2-ard-tile-notify-v2 (U.S. ARD Tiles)
- Each SNS topic publishes an Amazon S3 event message whenever a scene-level or product-level index.html file has been created, which is the last step in the process to make data available on Amazon S3. It will only accept subscriptions via Amazon SQS or AWS Lambda.
SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC)
All Landsat data stored in the AWS cloud platform include SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) metadata. Key features of STAC metadata include:
- Interoperability between satellite metadata (e.g., Landsat 8 + Sentinel 2 instruments)
- Exposes data in a common, machine-readable JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format for both end users and internal processes
- Includes direct links to Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) objects
- Provides the ability to quickly search large collections of data using spatial and temporal areas of interest
- Lives alongside product-level metadata (Landsat Metadata (MTL), Extensible Markup Language (XML)
STAC Browser https://landsatlook.usgs.gov/stac-browser
The STAC browser is a web-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) that allows users to browse and review STAC records and thumbnails for Landsat data in the cloud.
STAC Server API https://landsatlook.usgs.gov/stac-server
Visit the STAC GitHub Repo for more information about STAC, including examples and updates. Additional information regarding STAC metadata can be found at https://stacspec.org/.
STAC Metadata Version Updates Occasional updates are made to STAC Metadata. Specifics about each update are listed at https://github.com/radiantearth/stac-spec/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md.
STAC Samples
Collection 2 Level-2 Scenes The files listed below contain STAC metadata for Level-2 Surface Reflectance and Surface Temperature data for Landsat 9 OLI/TIRS Path 95 Row 21, Acquired June 25, 2022.
Collection 2 Analyis Ready Data (C2 ARD)
C2 ARD STAC records include a Landsat-ARD STAC extension that includes the fields related to the tiled data, including grid_horizonal, grid_vertical, grid_region, scene_count, cloud_shadow_cover, snow_ice_cover, and fill. STAC records also provide reference to the Level-2 Albers scenes that are used in the production of each ARD tile.
The samples listed below contain STAC metadata for Landsat 9 data of C2 ARD Alaska tile AK_H005V013 acquired July 2, 2022.
- Surface Reflectance Tile
- Surface Temperature Tile
- Brightness Temperature Tile
- Top of Atmosphere Tile
Collection 2 Level-3 Science Products
The samples below contain STAC metadata for C2 Level-3 Burned Area, Dynamic Snow Covered Extent (DSWE), and Fractional Snow Covered Area (fSCA) science products.
- Burned Area (Tile CU_009015 acquired March 2, 2022)
- DSWE (Tile AK_003013 acquired March 9, 2022)
- fSCA (Tile AK_003013 acquired March 9, 2022)
Documentation
The Landsat Commercial Cloud Direct Access Users Guide provides basic information on how users leverage the Landsat data in the cloud in order to enhance existing workflows by utilizing common tools available in the commercial cloud environment.
