Science Technology

Landsat Next is the next planned earth observing satellite mission collaboration between the USGS and NASA. The mission will ensure continuity of the longest space-based record of Earth’s land surface, and fundamentally transform the breadth and depth of actionable information freely available to end users. It will provide new capabilities for the next generation of Landsat users. The enhanced...

Radiometric resolution relates to how much information is perceived by a satellite’s sensor. While the human eye detects color, Landsat sensors measure energy reflecting or emitted from the earth and relay that information as an image to users in varying degrees of greyscale. The higher the radiometric resolution, the more shades of grey the user sees. Landsat data are characterized by digital...

Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 work as a satellite constellation. This means that these two nearly identical satellites work in tandem as a system. Each satellite circles the Earth every 16 days, with their two orbits offset by time so that every location on the planet is imaged every eight days. The satellite constellation of Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 is in a near-polar orbit on the Worldwide Reference...

Landsat Collection 2 Surface Temperature products are generated from several input data sources and atmospheric profiles. This includes NASA's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Emissivity Dataset (GED). The ASTER GED dataset is created from all clear-sky pixels of ASTER scenes acquired from 2000 through 2008. While this dataset has a global spatial...

Use the LandsatLook Viewer to view and access USGS Landsat satellite Collection 2 data. Use the Viewer to: Query the Landsat archive by area of interest, sensor, acquisition date, or cloud cover. Filter out cloud-contaminated pixels within a mosaic. Export images in a PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format. Generate and download a video animation time-lapse mosaic. Learn More: LandsatLook Viewer

A scale factor must be applied to Landsat Level-2 surface reflectance and surface temperature products before using the data. You can apply a scale factor to the science products via a data script, through manual calculation, or within certain software programs. Scale factors, fill values, data type, and valid range for Landsat Collection 1 and Collection 2 science products Science Product Scale...

Landsat data continue to be freely available through traditional USGS tools such as EarthExplorer, but if you prefer to access the data in the cloud, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account is required. Landsat data are available in the cloud via the AWS Oregon us-west-2 region. There is no charge for the Landsat data, but charges from the cloud vendor might apply for any storage, processing, and...

Yes. Regardless of how it is accessed, Landsat data are controlled by the USGS and considered to be an official USGS record in the public domain. Permission is not required for use. We do request that you acknowledge the USGS as the source. Learn More: USGS Copyrights and Credits statement Landsat Commercial Cloud Data Access

Some Landsat products include Quality Assessment (QA) bands with unsigned integers that represent bit-packed information for each pixel. Details for individual products are at: Landsat Level-1 (Collection 1 and Collection2) Landsat Level-2 Surface Reflectance Landsat Level-2 Provisional Aquatic Reflectance These files must be unpacked to a binary form to be used effectively. The bit-packed...

Landsat Collection 2 marks the second major reprocessing event of the USGS Landsat archive. Continuing the tiered collection management structure implemented in Landsat Collection 1, Landsat Collection 2 introduces several advancements in data processing, algorithm development, as well as data access and distribution capabilities, including: Improved per-pixel geodetic accuracy by incorporating...

The naming convention for Landsat Collection 2 Level-1 products remains the same as in Collection 1. While most of Landsat Collection 2 scenes are produced to both Surface Reflectance (SR) and Surface Temperature (ST), a small number of scenes cannot be processed to ST due to missing auxiliary data. The naming convention of Landsat Collection 2 Level-2 products indicates the data included for each...

Landsat Collection 2 Level-2 Surface Reflectance and Surface Temperature science products are scene-based, produced within the standard processing system, and available to download directly from EarthExplorer. Collection 2 Level-2 products are available for Landsat 4-5 TM, Landsat 7 ETM+, and Landsat 8-9 OLI/TIRS data acquired from 1982 to present. Landsat MSS 1-5 data are not currently available...