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All Landsat 9 Collection 2 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) data will be reprocessed at the end of 2022 to take advantage of calibration updates identified during the first year of operation.
Similar reprocessing occurred for Landsat 8 data in 2014 after its first full year of acquisitions and is a normal part of operations for a new Landsat satellite.
Since becoming operational in November of 2021, the USGS/NASA Calibration and Validation team has continued refining calibration parameters to improve Landsat 9 data. Both radiometric and geometric corrections will be applied during reprocessing and will propagate from Collection 2 Level-1 data through to all Level-2 and subsequent science products.
The team has currently identified the following updates and will continue to look for further improvements:
OLI/TIRS Focal Plane Module balancing (banding)
OLI/TIRS detector balancing (striping)
L8/L9 cross-calibration (dataset continuity)
OLI/TIRS Line of Sight and Alignment (co-registration)
After reprocessing occurs, the USGS recommends that users consider replacing Landsat 9 data and any subsequently derived products. Users are encouraged to review all Landsat 9 calibration notices and evaluate the improvements as they relate to specific applications.
Please watch for new Landsat Headlines and follow our social media for updates regarding the reprocessing timing and calibration improvements.
If you have any questions, please email custserv@usgs.gov.
Return to all Landsat Headlines