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New Data Access Tool Offers Faster, More User-Friendly Landsat Experience

July 6, 2021

LandsatLook 2.0 Viewer Optimized for Users of Commercial Cloud

A new and improved data tool released by the USGS, known as LandsatLook 2.0 Viewer, will make it easier and faster to access earth imagery and simpler to analyze through the use of cloud-based systems.

Screenshot of LandsatLook Viewer
Screenshot from the USGS LandsatLook 2.0 viewer. The updated tool allows users to combine bands for their area of interest to explore the global Landsat Archive.

The improved product allows for easier discovery, scanning, studying, and downloading of imagery from the USGS National Land Imaging Program. The Viewer also allows for rapid online viewing and access to USGS Landsat Collection 2 data, which is available in both traditional and cloud-friendly formats. Viewing options include the generation of monthly mosaics and time series videos.

LandsatLook 2.0 leverages both formats by enabling users to download individual bands in the viewer’s metadata section or cut and paste code from their area of interest into a notebook for analysis in a commercial cloud environment.

“In 2008, Landsat access was transformed under an open data policy. Moving these data into the cloud was the next big transformation, which made the data even more accessible to users,” said Kristi Kline, Observing Systems Branch Chief at USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. “LandsatLook 2.0 is a new tool designed to help users take advantage of cloud-based systems.”

Users of the tool can browse the entire global Landsat archive and visualize scenes in any band combination or use pre-set combinations like natural color and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. LandsatLook 2.0 replaces the original LandsatLook viewer for Collection 2 data. That legacy viewer, now known as LandLook, will continue to provide access to Landsat Collection 1’s scene-based images. Additionally, the Sentinel2Look Viewer will continue to offer access to the USGS archive of imagery from Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite missions.

LandsatLook 2.0 improvements provide users the ability to:

  • Filter scenes by querying the Landsat archive by area of interest, sensor, acquisition date or cloud cover,
  • Visualize dynamic image mosaics by choosing band combinations or choosing from available spectral indices
  • Filter out cloud contaminated pixels
  • Export an image mosaic in a Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format
  • View metadata of source scenes
  • Download individual band files of source scenes
  • Search by address or place name, or pan/zoom to a point on the base map
  • Zoom to a location using the locator function from a web browser
  • Overlay the Worldwide Reference System 2 (WRS-2) grid on the base map for added spatial awareness
  • Generate and download a video animation mosaic time-lapse showing how the dynamic mosaic changes over time

To learn more about LandsatLook 2.0 and experience a visual tour of its capabilities: https://www.usgs.gov/media/videos/landsat-cloud-landsatlook-20

The EROS Center welcomes feedback on any of its data access tools. Email: custserv@usgs.gov.

 

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