Landsat Missions
On April 21, 2008, the USGS announced plans to provide all archived Landsat scenes at no charge to all users. (View the original Technical Announcement - .pdf (66.8 KB).
All scenes will be processed using the parameters shown below. Scenes that have a quality score of 9 and less than 40 percent cloud cover will be automatically processed. Any archived scene, regardless of cloud cover, will be processed upon request and made available for download.
All Landsat 7 (1999–present) and Landsat 5 (1984 30/60 meters pixel size (Landsat 7 Pan band = 15) GeoTIFF output format Cubic Convolution (CC) resampling method Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) map projection, with Polar Stereographic projection used for Antarctica scenes MAP (north up) image orientation File transfer protocol (FTP) download only Landsat 4 (1982–86) standard L1T products will also be processed with these parameters, but will be produced by using the NLAPS* processing system. |
All Landsats 1–3 (1972–83) standard L1T products will be 60 meters pixel size GeoTIFF output format Cubic Convolution (CC) resampling method UTM map projection, with Polar Stereographic projection used for Antarctica scenes MAP (north up) image orientation FTP download only |
*Two processing systems will continue to generate Landsat data products: the Level 1 Product Generation System (LPGS) and the National Land Archive Production System (NLAPS). There are geometric, radiometric, and data-format differences in the systems that create final products with slight differences. Details about the LPGS and NLAPS can be found at http://landsat.usgs.gov/products_IP_LPGSvsNLAPS.php.
**While most data will be processed as Level 1T (precision and terrain corrected), certain scenes do not have ground-control or elevation data necessary for precision or terrain correction, respectively. In these cases, the best level of correction will be applied (Level 1G-systematic or Level 1Gt-systematic terrain).
Landsat scenes can be requested and downloaded from Glovis (http://glovis.usgs.gov) or Earth Explorer (http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov).
More details on the Standard Terrain Corrected (Level 1T) data currently available can be found at http://eros.usgs.gov/products/satellite/landsat7.php
View USGS Factsheet 2008-3091: - .pdf (85.5 KB)