USGS Archive and Available Scenes

The USGS archive holds data collected by the Landsat suite of satellites, beginning with Landsat 1 in 1972. All Landsat scenes in the USGS EROS archive are available for download at no charge. The Search and Download page describes how to find Landsat data.

Current Acquisitions

Currently, Landsat 7 and Landsat 5 continue to collect data, following a near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit on the Worldwide Reference System.

Orbital path of Landsat 7 and Landsat 5 - FAQ
Worldwide Reference System (WRS) - FAQ

The Landsat Acquisition page lists daily capture schedules, acquisition calendars, and pending acquisitions.

Landsat 7

Landsat 7 collects about 300 scenes per day and scenes downlinked to USGS EROS are generally available to order within 6 hours of acquisition.

Landsat 7 scenes from April 1999 to May 2003 provide complete full-scene data.
Landsat 7 acquisitions since mid-2003 are collected and archived as “SLC-off”, due to the Scan Line Corrector failure. This accounts for an approximate loss of 22 percent of the entire scene, and gaps will be visible in the data product.

Landsat 5

The collection of Landsat 5 data has not been as consistent throughout its 27 years, and is on a limited acquisition schedule. Landsat 5 scenes that are downlinked to USGS EROS are also available to order generally within 6 hours of acquisition.

Landsat 5 must be in direct contact with a ground station to collect data,
Other operational component malfunctions have forced limited collections. (See this Landsat Update for more details)

Accessibility FOIA Privacy Policies and Notices

U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://landsat.usgs.gov
Page Contact Information: Ask Landsat
Page Last Modified: 11/22/11 03:00 pm
Sitemap