View Landsat Headlines Archive

December 17, 2020 - Every Pixel in its Place: How Collections Unlock the Potential of the Landsat Archive

Landsat satellite data have never been as valuable or as useful to the science and applications community as they are today. (Read more)

December 9, 2020 - Landsat 8 Data Affected by Safehold Being Reprocessed

With calibration analysis complete, Landsat 8 data from recent safeholds will be reprocessed into tiered-products (T1 or T2) starting on December 9, 2020. (Read more)

December 9, 2020 – Immediate Change in Landsat Headlines RSS Notifications

Effective immediately, the Landsat Headlines RSS notifications will be changing. (Read more)

December 7, 2020 - New Landsat Update Special Issue: Landsat Collection 2 Now Available

A new issue of the Landsat Update has been posted to the Landsat Missions website. (Read more)

December 2, 2020 - USGS Releases the Most Advanced Landsat Archive to Date

USGS sets earth observation precedent with Landsat Collection 2 Dataset. (Read More)

November 20, 2020 – Upcoming Landsat Processing Interruption

The Level-1 processing of Landsat 8 and Landsat 7 data acquired on Monday, November 23 and Tuesday, November 24, 2020 will be delayed due to processing systems updates. (Read More)

November 19, 2020 – Landsat 8 Data Availability Update from Recent Safehold Events

The Landsat 8 Flight Operations Team has successfully restored the Operational Land Imaging (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) instruments to nominal operations and resumed imaging of OLI/TIRS combined data on November 14, 2020. (Read More)

November 13, 2020 – Landsat 8 Placed in Safehold

On Thursday, November 12, 2020 (DOY 317), Landsat 8 experienced a spacecraft anomaly and was put into a safehold mode. Overnight the Landsat 8 Flight Operations Team was able to successfully restore the spacecraft to nominal operations. (Read More)

November 10, 2020 - Landsat 8 Data from Safehold Available in Provisional State 

Landsat 8 Real-Time (RT) products acquired from November 4, 2020 (DOY 309) to present are available for download but remain provisional. (Read More)

November 6, 2020 – Landsat 8 Safehold Update

This week, the Landsat 8 Flight Operations Team has successfully restored the Operational Land Imaging (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) instruments to their optimal temperature in order to resume imaging. (Read More)

November 2, 2020 - Landsat 8 Currently in Safehold

On Sunday, November 1, 2020, a spacecraft anomaly caused Landsat 8 to enter into safehold. The spacecraft is stable and safe at this time. (Read More)

October 15, 2020 - Upcoming Reprocessing of Landsat 8 Data Acquired During 2019 Safehold

On October 19, 2020, 4,764 Landsat 8 scenes acquired from December 12, 2019 (DOY 346) to December 19, 2019 (DOY 353) will be reprocessed to apply the correct BPFs in the impacted Landsat Collection 1 Level-1 data. (Read more)

October 8, 2020 – Landsat 7 Acquisitions Lost Due to Ground Station Antenna Issue

On October 5, 2020, a ground station reception issue resulted in the loss of scheduled Landsat 7 acquisitions. (Read More)

October 5, 2020 - Recent Changes to Landsat Mission Web Site URLs

Web Site addresses were recently changed following a USGS organizational change. (Read More)

Sept 25, 2020 - Landsat Archive Adds Nine Millionth Scene

The world’s longest continuously collected Earth observation archive added its nine millionth scene this week. Landsat 8, launched in 2013, acquired the scene on Saturday, September 19, 2020 over northern Paraguay. (Read more)  

July 31, 2020 - Calibration Test Site Becomes Agricultural Hotspot

The Landsat satellites were designed to detect landscape changes over time. However, sometimes what Landsat needs to see on the Earth’s surface is no change at all. (Read more)

July 16, 2020 – New Landsat Acquisition Processing Delays Expected

Starting Wednesday, July 22, 2020, Level-1 processing of newly acquired Landsat 7 and Landsat 8 data will be delayed for up to 4 days while Landsat Operations systems are prepared to support the mid-2020 public availability of Landsat Collection 2. (Read More)

July 13, 2020: New publication describing Landsat Burned Area Algorithm and Products for the United States

A new publication in the journal of Remote Sensing of the Environment by Hawbaker et al., (2020) describes the Landsat Burned Area algorithm, the products produced, and new validation metrics. The paper describes the spatial and temporal patterns of burned areas across the conterminous U.S., how burned area varies in relation to the number of operational Landsat sensors, and a comparison with other burned area product datasets. (Read more)

June 30, 2020- Landsat Provisional Actual Evapotranspiration Science Product Now Available

The USGS has released an on-demand Landsat Provisional Actual Evapotranspiration (ETa) Science Product that will be useful in understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of water use over land surfaces and for monitoring hydrologic, agricultural, and environmental systems. (Read more)

June 25, 2020 - Landsat 8 Data from December 2019 Safehold Recently Processed

In late May 2020, Landsat 8 data that were acquired after a December 2019 spacecraft safehold event were reprocessed and made available for download as “OLI-only” scenes. (Read more)

June 11, 2020 - From Concept to Reality, USGS Land Change, Monitoring, Assessment and Projection Pushes Boundaries in Service of Science

The USGS Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) initiative has released its first suite of land cover change and landscape change products, an unmatched record of land cover and change for the United States, one that characterizes the dynamics of the landscape across the conterminous United States through 33 years of its history. (Read more)

April 23, 2020 — New Landsat Update Special Issue: Landsat Collection 2 Overview

In mid-2020, Landsat Collection 2 Level-1 and Level-2 surface reflectance and surface temperature scene-based products will be publicly available for download. Landsat Collection 2 will improve data quality and provide more accurate information for applications using Landsat, including time-series analysis, resulting in more informed decision-making. For more information visit the Landsat Update Special Issue April 2020

April 13, 2020 — William T. Pecora Award Nomination Deadline Extended

The deadline for 2020 William T. Pecora Award nominations has been extended to June 1, 2020.

April 13, 2020 — Updated Landsat Collection 2 Sample Products and Metadata Information Now Available

The USGS is approaching the final phases of preparing to process and make available Landat Collection 2 to the user community in early 2020.

April 6, 2020 — Landsat 9 Ground System and Mission Operation Plans Well on Track for Launch

Landsat 9 has successfully passed its Mission Operations Review. Together, NASA and USGS demonstrated that the Landsat 9 ground system and mission operation preparations are highly mature. (Read more)

April 1, 2020 — Landsat 8 Provisional Aquatic Reflectance Science Product Now Available

The USGS has released an on-demand Landsat 8 Provisional Aquatic Reflectance Science Product that will be useful in monitoring water quality, mapping chlorophyll concentrations, and measuring the inherent optical properties of water. (Read more)

March 20, 2020 — William T Pecora Award Nominations Now Being Accepted

Nominations for the 2020 William T. Pecora Award are now being accepted through May 1, 2020.  (Read more)

March 18, 2020 — Landsat 8 Recorder Playback Issue Results in Missed OLI Acquisitions

On March 13, 2020 (DOY 073) at 18:27 UTC, a playback channel on the Landsat 8 satellite became disabled, resulting in the Solid State Recorder (SSR) Auto Playback function to stop working nominally. (Read more)

March 17, 2020 — Landsat Data Moving to Public Cloud in Early 2020

The USGS is placing a copy of its consolidated Landsat global data inventory into a commercial cloud in early 2020. The move to the cloud is designed to reduce the time needed to create new products and to reprocess the Landsat data inventory into a new Collection. (Read more)

March 13, 2020 — A Landsat Milestone: One Hundred Million Downloads

When the world began downloading the first freely available Landsat images on Oct. 1, 2008, a lot of people wondered just how much imagery would fly out of the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) web-enabled doors. The answer, it turns out, was a lot. (Read more)

March 11, 2020 — Landsat Downloads Top 100 Million!

On March 9, 2020, the 100 millionth Landsat scene was downloaded from the Landsat data archive at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. (Read more)

March 9, 2020 — Winter 2020 Landsat Science Team Materials Available

The USGS-NASA Landsat Science Team convened February 4 - 6 , 2020 at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Department of the Interior,  in Phoenix, Arizona for their biannual meeting. (Read more)

March 3, 2020 — William T Pecora Award Nominations Now Being Accepted

The William T. Pecora Award is presented annually to individuals or groups that have made outstanding contributions toward understanding the Earth by means of remote sensing. The Department of the Interior (DOI) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) jointly sponsor the award. Nominations for the 2020 William T. Pecora Award are now being accepted through May 1, 2020. (Read more)

February 4, 2020 — Landsat Science Team Meeting in Arizona

The 2018-2023 Landsat Science Team is convening for their Winter meeting Tuesday, February 4 through Thursday, February 6 at the Arizona State Office, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Phoenix, Arizona. (Read more)

January 17, 2020 — Latest Landsat 8 Safehold Update

On December 19, 2019 at approximately 12:23 UTC, Landsat 8 experienced a spacecraft constraint which triggered entry into a Safehold. The Landsat 8 Flight Operations Team recovered the satellite from the event on December 20, 2019 (DOY 354). Since December 31, 2019 (DOY 365), the Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) has resumed nominal on-orbit operations and ground station processing, and all data achieve pre-Safehold quality. (Read more)

January 16, 2020 — Upcoming  Landsat 8 Bias Parameter File Regeneration

Starting Tuesday, January 21, 2020, all Landsat 8 Bias Parameter Files (BPFs) created prior to December 5, 2019 will be removed from the Landsat Bias Parameter Files search page and regenerated in preparation for Landsat Collection 2.  The BPFs are being updated to incorporate minor changes made to the Calibration Parameter Files (CPFs), which are used in the generation of BPFs.  The updated BPFs will be regenerated from oldest to newest, up until December 4, 2019. This activity is expected to take approximately 2 weeks. (Read more)

January 13, 2020 — Landsat 9: The Pieces Come Together

Landsat 9’s two science instruments are now attached to the spacecraft, bringing the mission one step closer to launch. In late December, the Operational Land Imager 2 (OLI-2) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 (TIRS-2) were both mechanically integrated on to the spacecraft bus at Northrop Grumman in Gilbert, Arizona. (Read more)

January 3, 2020 — Recent Landsat 8 Safehold Update

On December 19, 2019 at approximately 12:23 UTC, Landsat 8 experienced a spacecraft constraint which triggered entry into a Safehold. The Landsat 8 Flight Operations Team recovered the satellite from the event on December 20, 2019 (DOY 354). The spacecraft resumed nominal on-orbit operations and ground station processing on December 22, 2019 (DOY 356). (Read more)