The U. S. Geological Survey’s approach to analysis ready data

Analysis Ready Data (ARD) is a recent concept in Earth observing remote sensing which encompasses many different initiatives by individual imagery providers and collaborative international organizations working towards easing/minimizing data preprocessing required by users. This allows users to spend more time on analysis and less time on downloading, formatting, and ingesting. The U. S. Geological Survey (USGS), the primary provider of Landsat image data, has been making internal strides to provide ARD: moving towards Level-2 surface reflectance and surface temperature as standard products. External cooperation, working toward a common ARD definition, has also been a focus of the USGS by working directly with other governmental or commercial providers, both national and international, or through organizations such as the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and the Joint Agency Commercial Imagery Evaluation (JACIE) workshop. The USGS is determined to provide users with the most accurate and easy to use data.