Landsat Image Archive to Be Freely Available

Great news for environmental projects such as analyzing historical land use patterns, monitoring human impacts, and obtaining recent snapshots of environmental baseline data from satellite imagery - Landsat images are the "workhorse" data source for many environmental applications.

From a press release from the USGS:

As part of the transition to National Land Imaging Program sponsored by the Secretary of the Interior, the USGS has posted a schedule to provide users with electronic access to any Landsat scene held in the USGS-managed national archive of global scenes dating back to Landsat 1, launched in 1972.

By February 2009, any archive scene selected by a user – with no restriction on cloud cover – will be processed automatically to a standard product recipe, using such parameters as the Universe Transverse Mercator projection, and staged for electronic retrieval. In addition, newly acquired scenes meeting a cloud cover threshold of 20% or below will be processed to the standard recipe and placed on line for at least three months, after which they will remain available for selection from the archive.

Newly acquired, minimally cloudy Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data covering North America and Africa are already being distributed by the USGS over the Internet at no charge, with expansion to full global coverage of incoming Landsat 7 data to be completed by July 2008 (see timeline above). The full archive of historical Landsat 7 ETM+ data acquired by the USGS since launch in 1999 will become available for selection and downloading by the end of September 2008.

By the end of December of 2008, both incoming Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) data and all Landsat 5 TM data acquired by the USGS since launch (1984) will become available, with all Landsat 4 TM (1982-1985) and Landsat 1-5 Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS) (1972-1994) data becoming available by the end of January 2009.

This plan will only allow 1 recipe of data to be produced. Landsat 7 data will not have any gap correction applied. The 20% or less cloud cover images will be processed automatically, the higher cloud cover scenes will be processed as ordered with no plans for prioritization of orders.

• Pixel size: 15m/30m
• Media type: Download (web-enabled)
• Product type: L1T (terrain-corrected)
• Output format: GeoTIFF
• Map projection: UTM
• Orientation: North up
• Resampling: Cubic convolution
• DEM: GLS DEM (SRTM, NED, CDAD, DTED, GTOPO 30)
  

Images as Art and Science

Here at SkyTruth we appreciate the sheer beauty and fun of satellite imagery, in addition to it's intrinsic scientific and educational value. That's why we spend waaayyy too much time at the California Geographical Survey checking out the excellent work of Dr. William Bowen.

He's built a huge and growing collection of 3-D panoramic views and flyover videos from around the planet, created from Landsat and other satellite imaging systems and organized into browsable "digital atlases." He also produces informational wall maps, designed for classroom use, that educators may download and print.

Browsing this site is a real treat - these maps and images convey the big-picture context of landscapes and environments in a uniquely enjoyable way. It's the next best thing to spaceflight, and a heckuva lot cheaper!

SkyTruth Image Galleries

By the way, SkyTruth features an ever-growing collection of online image galleries that address issues like hardrock mining, oil and gas drilling, habitat loss, and pollution. The galleries include a variety of maps and pictures taken from public and commercial orbiting satellites, government aerial surveys, and out-the-window shots taken from low-flying aircraft (most of those aerial pics are provided by our friends at EcoFlight). And important ground-truth photos taken by ordinary folks all over the world that complement the high-flying SkyTruth perspective.

We've also created simulations to show what proposed developments - such as gold mines and natural-gas fields - could look like if they are built:
Browse the complete list of galleries here. Once you're in a gallery, click on any pic to get a bigger version accompanied by a descriptive caption; click on "Medium" or "Large" to display even larger versions, and "Original" to download the highest-resolution version available.

Please contact us (info@skytruth.org) if you'd like to use any of the pictures from our site. We typically grant permission for non-profit, educational and media use.