USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) EROS, Sioux Falls, SD

Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS)

Featured Products Archive

October 6, 2008 MRLC and NALC Release

The USGS is now offering a collection of Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) 2001 terrain-corrected satellite images. These scenes have been acquired by the MRLC Consortium and consist of Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) data.

MRLC 2001 data are available from the USGS at no charge via a web-enabled file download or on media for $20 per file.

The MRLC 2001 data cover the conterminous United States, Alaska and Hawaii. Most of the images are high quality and cloud cover is generally less than 10 percent. A 30-meter Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is included for all scenes that do not include international borders.

The MRLC consortium is a group of Federal agencies who joined together to acquire Landsat imagery and create nationally consistent land cover data. The data are available to the public through EarthExplorer, GloVis or the MRLC Consortium.

North American Landscape Characterization (NALC) data consist of Landsat Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS) time-series triplicates that were acquired in 1973, 1986, and 1991 (plus or minus one year). NALC data cover selected locations throughout the conterminous United States and Mexico.

NALC data are available from the USGS via web-enabled file download. The data are also available on media for $20 per triplicate and can be searched, downloaded, and ordered through EarthExplorer or GloVis.

For more information, please contact USGS Customer Service, EROS, 800-252-4547 or custserv@usgs.gov.

July 11, 2006 SIR-C Previously Processed Precision Data now available for download at no charge from the USGS.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) now offers Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C (SIR-C) Previously Processed Precision Data for downloading at no charge through Earth Explorer at http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov.

SIR-C is an imaging radar system flown aboard the space shuttle with two flights from 9 to 20 April 1994 and 30 September to 11 October 1994. Flying at an altitude of 215 km in a circular orbit and a 57 degree inclination, the three-frequency, multi-polarization radar performed a variety of Earth environmental observations that are used to improve our understanding of the Earth's carbon, water, and energy cycles. Throughout the 9 year history of SIR-C operations at EROS, nearly 19,000 SIR-C precision products were generated for customers, copies of which are stored in the EROS archive and made available to the public.

For more information regarding SIR-C, please see: http://eros.usgs.gov/products/satellite/sirc.html or contact USGS Customer Service, EROS, 800-252-4547 or custserv@usgs.gov.

June 1, 2006 Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer Sensor (AVHRR) 7 and 14 Day Greenness Composite Maps now available for download at no charge from the USGS.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) now offers the complete archive of AVHRR 7 and 14 Day Greenness Composite Map products for the conterminous United States and Alaska for downloading at no charge through Earth Explorer at http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/. The archive includes data from 1989 to the present.

For more information regarding AVHRR 7 and 14 Day Greenness Map products, please go to http://eros.usgs.gov/products/landcover/ndvi.html or contact USGS Customer Service, EROS, 800-252-4547 or custserv@usgs.gov.

December 27, 2005 Orthorectified Landsat data is now available for free download from the US Geological Survey

In response to the USGS initiative to make more Landsat data readily available, the USGS is pleased to announce that Orthorectified Landsat data is now available for free download from the Global Visualization Viewer (GloVis) at http://glovis.usgs.gov and Earth Explorer at http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov.

2005

ALI Systematic Terrain-Corrected (Level 1Gst) Data Product

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS), in cooperation with NASA, is pleased to announce the release of a new Systematic Terrain-Corrected (Level 1Gst) data product from the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) Advanced Land Imager (ALI). This new processing option provides increased quality and improved geometric (band-to-band registration) accuracy of the ALI data product. The previously available ALI image products consisted of L1R (radiometrically corrected) and Level 1Gs (radiometrically and geometrically corrected) data.

The new ALI product is available for $500 per scene, and may be searched and ordered through Earth Explorer or the USGS Global Visualization Viewer.

For more information, please visit the EO-1 website: http://eo1.usgs.gov/

April 4, 2005

USGS Commercial Data Purchases (UCDP) Imagery Now Available

Effective April 1, 2005, the USGS National Center for EROS is pleased to announce the availability of a limited amount of commercial satellite imagery. This imagery is available to qualified users, primarily federal civil agencies.

The UCDP imagery inventory is an archive of high-resolution commercial satellite imagery from several commercial satellite vendors and is located at the USGS National Center for EROS. Current imagery includes Space Imaging IKONOS imagery and Digital Globe QuickBird imagery.

Copies of the imagery are made available for download or on DVD. To search, download, and order, please visit Earth Explorer. Due to licensing of imagery, users must first register and indicate their organizational affiliation to gain access to the imagery.

For further information please visit: http://edc.usgs.gov/products/satellite/ucdp.html

Feb 22, 2005

New Grid System now Available for Completed SRTM Elevation Datasets

The USGS EROS implemented a new system composed of 13 grid areas to obtain Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Each of the 13 grid areas is contained on one DVD as opposed to the 70-area CD grid system of the past. The new grids are bounded on more of a continent basis than the previous and also allow customers to fit more data on each piece of media.

All DTED® data have been received from NGA and archived in both the standard NGA DTED® format and the USGS SRTM format which is a binary raster format derived from the NGA DTED® product

The standard NGA DTED® formatted data can be searched and ordered from http://edcsns17.cr.usgs.gov/srtm/index.html. The USGS SRTM format can be searched and ordered from http://edcsns17.cr.usgs.gov/srtmbil/index.html.

Dec 27, 2004

EO-1 ALI Level 1Gs Product Now Available

Effective December 22, 2004, the USGS EROS in cooperation with NASA is pleased to announce the release of a new Level 1Gs systematic (geometrically and radiometrically corrected) stitched data product from the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) Advanced Land Imager (ALI).

The new ALI product is available for $500 per scene, and may be searched and ordered through Earth Explorer or the USGS Global Visualization Viewer.

For more information, please visit the EO-1 website: http://eo1.usgs.gov/

Dec 10, 2004

Medium Resolution Digitized Aerial Film Product

SLC-off to SLC-off Gapfilled Products Now Available

The USGS EROS has recently released a new product option for Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data captured after the Scan Line Corrector (SLC) anomaly. Gap-filled product options will now allow the data merge of one or more SLC-off fill scenes for generation of a final gap-free image. Users may select from up to four SLC-off scenes, in addition to an optional SLC-on scene, to create a final data merged product.

The technique used to generate the new product is similar to the previous gap-filled products. The major advantage of this new product is a much improved temporal match of fill scenes used to produce the final image. The SCL-off to SLC-off product will now allow the use of scenes from consecutive passes to fill the gaps of the target scene.

The cost of the new SLC-off to SLC-off product option is $300 per scene. For more information, please visit the Landsat Project website: http://landsat.usgs.gov/slc_off.html

August 9, 2004

Landsat Orthorectified TM Mosaics

The USGS EROS is pleased to announce the release of the Landsat Orthorectified TM Mosaics. These 5°x6° mosaics are derived from the Landsat orthorectified scene-based imagery data set which was released in December 2003. The majority of the collection dates range from 1987-1993. This dataset provides users with remote sensing data over much of the earth’s surface. For further information please visit Landsat Orthorectified TM Mosaics product description.

June 24, 2004

Scanning Aircraft and Satellite Film

The USGS EROS has in its possession thousands of rolls of film containing several million frames of historical aerial and satellite photographs dating back to the 1930's gathered from various federal agencies. The largest portion of this archive consists of original film acquired in support of the USGS 1:24,000 topographic quadrangle map series, taken during the 1940s through the 1970s. Most of this photography is reasonably large scale to support the production of the quadrangle maps.

The USGS EROS has implemented a high-resolution digitally scanned product. The high-resolution files are Photogrammetric quality and are created at approximately 1200 dpi with an output image size of around nine inches square. The file sizes are approximately 120 megabytes for black and white images and 360 megabytes for color images and are stored in a TIFF format. The high-resolution files are produced on either a Zeiss SCAI Precision Scanner using a PHODIS Photogrammetric Image Processing System or a Leica Geosystems DSW600 Digital Scanning Workstation. We have prepared samples of the high-resolution digital data for two frames of photography over an area of New York City taken in 1966 at a scale of 1:24,000.

For further information please contact: custserv@usgs.gov

June 24, 2004

Digitizing Aircraft and Satellite Film

The USGS EROS has in its possession thousands of rolls of film containing several million frames of historical aerial and satellite photographs dating back to the 1930's gathered from various Federal agencies. The largest portion of this archive consists of original film acquired in support of the USGS 1:24,000 topographic quadrangle map series taken during the 1940s through the 1970s. Most of this photography is reasonably large scale to support the production of the quadrangle maps.

The USGS EROS has implemented a medium-resolution digital product.

The medium-resolution files are non-Photogrammetric quality and are created at approximately 600 dpi with an output image size of around five inches square. The file sizes are approximately 15 megabytes for black and white images and 45 megabytes for color images and are stored in a TIFF format. The medium-resolution files are produced using a digital camera system with ADOBE Photoshop software. We have prepared samples of the medium-resolution digital data for two frames of photography over an area of New York City taken in 1966.

For further information please contact: custserv@usgs.gov

May 10, 2004

Landsat 7 SLC-off Price Reduction and New Gap-filled Product Release
As of May 10, 2004, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is reducing the price of Landsat 7 SLC-off data from $600 to $250 per scene. As of the same date, a new SLC-off gap-filled product will also be available at a cost of $275 per scene. This product consists of an SLC-off scene in which all data gaps have been filled with histogram-matched data from a previous date. More information on the new gap-filled product and downloadable product samples are available at: Landsat 7 gap-filled product description.

All SLC-off data products may be searched and ordered on Earth Explorer or GloVis

March 23, 2004

Two New SRTM Elevation Products Now Available - The Black Hills Custer, SD

Two New SRTM Elevation Products Now Available
The USGS EROS is pleased to announce the release of "Finished" 1 arc second (30-meter) Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation data on Mar 24, 2004 that has been provided by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). SRTM is a cooperative project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the NGA. The radar data were acquired through the use of multiple antennas aboard the NASA Space Shuttle Endeavour during February 11-22, 2000. The mission acquired data from 60° north latitude to 56° south latitude.

Two "Finished" SRTM 1-arc second (30 m) product offerings are now available from EDC in a DTED® and SRTM format. The standard NGA DTED® formatted data can be searched and ordered from http://earthexplorer.cr.usgs.gov/srtmdted2/. The SRTM format, which is a binary raster format derived from the NGA DTED® product, can be searched and ordered from http://earthexplorer.cr.usgs.gov/srtmbil2/.

March 22, 2004

USGS ANNOUNCES NEW PRODUCT LINE
A technique to estimate radiometric values in Landsat 7 data gaps has been selected, and the resulting new products will be available to customers in June 2004.

The USGS Landsat 7 Project at EROS in Sioux Falls, South Dakota has been taking steps to increase the utility of the ETM+ data that includes non-functional scan line corrector (SLC) artifacts. The SLC on the Landsat 7 ETM+ instrument failed May 31, 2003.

In the planned products, the gap pixels are replaced with data from a previously acquired SLC-on scene that is registered and histogram matched to the SLC-off image. The histogram matching technique is a localized linear transform performed in a moving window throughout the missing pixels.

Also, in March 2004 the current ETM+ SLC-off product will be available to the public with a user-selectable amount of interpolation to replace missing gap pixels. The USGS is continuing to research other methods of providing better gap pixel estimates/merged data products and will continue to provide information resulting from this work as it becomes available.

A sample product, with a comparison with the degraded data, further information and regular updates on the planned product release can be found at http://landsat7.usgs.gov/slc_enhancements/.

January 8, 2004

EO-1 Mission Extended and Prices Reduced!

Based on current funding projections, and in support of Landsat data users, NASA and the USGS plan to extend the EO-1 mission at least through fiscal year 2004 (through September). This assurance enables current and prospective users to plan now for EO-1 data to be captured this summer.

Additional good news for customers comes in the form of a USGS price decrease. The price decrease is the result of recently upgraded data processing equipment and will take effect on January 15, 2004. Customers now have access to over 20,000 EO-1 archive scenes - either Hyperion or Advanced Land Imager (ALI) - at $250.00 each, half the previous price. While the data acquisition fee remains at $1500 to acquire a new customer-specified scene from anywhere around the globe (poles excepted), the charge for processing the scene data is now $250.00, for a total of $1750.00 vs. the previous total of $2000.00.

Technical note: As an experimental satellite, EO-1 does not have the capacity to fill in for all data missing from a Landsat 7 scene affected by that satellite's failed scan-line corrector. The EO-1 ALI sensor can image smaller study sites, however, given its 37 km swath width. ALI scenes typically are acquired in strips 60 km along-track, of which 42 km are usable and are provided in a Level-1 product format. However, longer scenes (up to 185 km along-track) can be acquired on request at an additional charge.

January 16, 2004

Two New SRTM Elevation Products Now Available
The USGS EROS is pleased to announce the release of "Finished" Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation data on Jan 22, 2004 that has been provided by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). SRTM is a cooperative project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the NGA. The radar data were acquired through the use of multiple antennas aboard the NASA Space Shuttle Endeavour during February 11-22, 2000. The mission acquired data from 60° north latitude to 56° south latitude.

Two "Finished" SRTM 3-arc second (90 m) product offerings of North and South America are now available from EDC in a DTED® and SRTM format. The standard NGA DTED® formatted data can be searched and ordered from http://edcsns17.cr.usgs.gov/srtm/index.html. The SRTM format, which is a binary raster format derived from the NGA DTED® product, can be searched and ordered from http://edcsns17.cr.usgs.gov/srtmbil/index.html. "Finished" data for other continents will be added as it becomes available from NGA.

December 29, 2003

Landsat Orthorectified Imagery
Through cooperative efforts between NASA and the commercial remote sensing community, the USGS EROS released two new Landsat-7 products on December 23, 2003. The Landsat orthorectified ETM+ imagery and Landsat orthorectified Pan sharpened ETM+ Imagery data sets joined the Landsat orthorectified TM imagery data set, which was used as to establish the baseline for these two new products. Together, these products form a suite of quality-screened, high-resolution satellite images with global coverage over the Earth's landmasses, which provide users with remote sensing data for tracking change over much of the Earth. For further information please visit http://edc.usgs.gov/products/satellite/landsat_ortho.html.

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U.S. Department of the Interior \| U.S. Geological Survey URL: http://eros.usgs.gov/ Page Contact Information: custserv@usgs.gov Page Last Modified: February 2, 2006