Originally developed for terrestrial science and applications, the US Geological Survey Landsat surface reflectance (SR) archive spanning ~ 40 yr of observations has been increasingly utilized in large-scale water-quality studies. These products, however, have not been rigorously validated using in situ measured reflectance. This letter quantifies and demonstrates the quality of the SR products by harnessing a sizeable global dataset (N = 1100). We found that the Landsat 8/9 SR in the green and red bands marginally meet the targeted accuracy requirements (30%), whereas the uncertainties in the blue and coastal-aerosol bands ranged from 48% to 110%. We further observed > +25% biases in the visible bands of Landsat 5/7 SR, which can introduce an apparent downward trend when applied in time-series analyses combined with Landsat 8/9. Users must exercise caution when using this archive for trend analyses, and progress in atmospheric correction is required to foster advanced applications of the Landsat archive for aquatic science.
Citation Information
Publication Year | 2023 |
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Title | Validity of the Landsat surface reflectance archive for aquatic science: Implications for cloud-based analysis |
DOI | 10.1002/lol2.10344 |
Authors | Daniel Andrade Maciel, Nima Pahlevan, Claudio Clemente Faria Barbosa, Evlyn Márcia Leão de Moraes de Novo, Rejane Souza Paulino, Vitor Souza Martins, Eric Vermote, Christopher J. Crawford |
Publication Type | Article |
Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
Series Title | Limnology and Oceanography Letters |
Index ID | 70247785 |
Record Source | USGS Publications Warehouse |
USGS Organization | Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center |