Landsat and LDCM Headlines 2013

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May 17, 2013 – Surface reflectance is now available

Surface reflectance is now available as a Landsat climate data record (CDR) product through EarthExplorer.

These products are generated on-demand from Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 7 ETM+ data and are also available for the Global Land Survey 2000, 2005, and 2010 collections.

May 16, 2013 – Ethiopian Highlands

This image of the Ethiopian Highlands (Lake Tana is in the upper right) was taken on April 19, 2013 and is but a small portion of the Long Swath visualization created by our mission partner NASA.

May 15, 2013 – Fly with LDCM!

On April 19, 2013, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission passed over one long swath from Russia to southern Africa. Our mission partners at NASA crafted a beautiful fly-over that is a must-see!

May 13, 2013 – Website Unavailable May 15, 2013

This site will be unavailable from 7:00 am to 10:00 am Central Time on Weds, May 15, 2013.

May 13, 2013 – Wildfire data available for download

Last week, NASA Earth Observatory released a change pair of Landsat Data Continuity Mission images that showed before and after the southern California wildfire. Users can now download the entire 10-band image from May 4, 2013, which is the post-fire scene.

May 9, 2013 – Landsat 8 view of southern California burn scar

Stunning before and after images of the burn scar of the southern California wildfire have been released on the NASA Earth Observatory page. These images were acquired by the newest Landsat satellite, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=81085

May 1, 2013 – Landsat Data Continuity Mission on WRS-2: Sample Data Available!

Since launch, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) has been gradually making its way to operational orbit (called WRS-2) at 705 km (438 miles) above the surface of Earth. Check out this beautiful sample product of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon from April 23, 2013. The sample includes all bands.

May 1, 2013 – Landsat 5 MSS 2012-2013 Data Available

The workhorse of the Landsat 5 mission was the Thematic Mapper (TM) instrument. In November of 2011, the TM failed, and the MultiSpectral Scanner (MSS) instrument was brought back online a few months later. The MSS had not acquired data for over a decade, due to the loss of Band 4 (and the continued success of the TM). While the MSS was acquiring data, the ground station was crafting new capabilities to ingest the raw instrument data. The data have been successfully ingested and are available from EarthExplorer. It will be made available from GloVis and LandsatLook soon. More details on the new MSS data are available at http://landsat.usgs.gov/NewMSSProduct.php.

April 26, 2013 – USGS and NASA to Host Social Media Event

On May 30, 2013, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission will begin its life's work as an operational mission under the new moniker Landsat 8. Social media users that participate in Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus can register to attend an event in Sioux Falls, SD that will include an official ceremony, tours, and an evening event. Participants that are chosen to attend are responsible for their own travel costs. Registration opens at noon EDT on April 26, 2013.

April 25, 2013 – Old Metadata Format to be Removed

For over 6 months, Landsat 1-7 products have included a new metadata format to align with operational data from the Landsat Data Continuity Mission. We have been including the historic metadata format to allow users enough transition time to adjust to the new format. That file, *_OLD.txt, will be removed as of Monday, April 29, 2013.

April 23, 2013 – How do they compare? See for yourself!

In the past few weeks, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) flew underneath Landsat 7, acquiring nearly concurrent images. See how similar they are, but so different!

April 23, 2013 – Landsat Data Continuity Mission Images of the Salton Sea

Wondering what the thermal band is all about? Check out this LDCM Thermal InfraRed Sensor (TIRS) example from the Salton Sea.

April 8, 2013 – New LDCM/Landsat 8 Image Examples Available!

Greenbelt, Vandenberg, Gilbert and Sioux Falls: these four areas played important roles in the creation and implementation of the LDCM. Take a look at images of these areas, created using recently acquired LDCM/ Landsat 8 data: http://landsat.usgs.gov/LDCM_Image_Examples.php

March 29, 2013 – LDCM/Landsat 8 Sample Data available!

Data collected recently by the OLI and TIRS sensors aboard LDCM is available for download: http://landsat.usgs.gov/LDCM_DataProduct.php.

March 21, 2013 – First image from LDCM!

On March 18, 2013, the first images were taken with the Operational Land Imager (OLI) onboard the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). Checkout of the instruments and spacecraft is proceeding well, and operational data is estimated to be available in late May, 2013.

March 11, 2013 – Network Outage

This website may become unusable from 5:00 to 8:00 pm Central time on Thursday March 14, 2013 for network upgrades. We apologize for any inconvenience.

March 8, 2013 – Landsat 7 Lifetime Calibration Update

The Calibration team has recently documented that the gains of the reflective bands have degraded over the past 14 years. On April 1, 2013, an update to the Landsat 7 processing will correct images for this degradation. All of the Landsat 7 data on the online server will be purged. Newly acquired data will be automatically processed, and users will need to request historical data for processing.

February 21, 2013 – LDCM begins on-orbit testing

While the Landsat Data Continuity Mission launch on February 11th was the conclusion of years of effort, it was also a beginning. Many components, subsystems, and instruments will be activated and tested in the 100 days that follow launch. All goes well so far! For more: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/landsat/main/index.html

February 11, 2013 – The Launch of LDCM

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 10:02 a.m. PST on February 11, 2013. In about 100 days, the USGS will take control and the spacecraft, will be renamed Landsat 8, and data will be made available to all users at no charge.

See pictures of pre-launch and the launch of LDCM.

View the specifics about the LDCM launch.

Download the LDCM Brochure - .pdf (17.2 MB)

The Launch of the Next Landsat (Image of the Week February 7, 2013)

View the LDCM briefing held January 10, 2013.

LDCM poster

LDCM patch

LDCM logo

NASA LDCM page

Watch one of our favorite videos about Landsat!

Watch the launch of LDCM

February 11, 2013 – Landsat 5 Sets Guinness World Record

Landsat 5 successfully set the new Guinness World Records title for 'Longest-operating Earth observation satellite’ as stated in an e-mail from Guinness World Records sent to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Outliving its three-year design life, Landsat 5 delivered high-quality, global data of Earth's land surface for 28 years and 10 months. More details about this outstanding achievement can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/landsat/news/landsat5-guinness.html

January 17, 2013 – Web-Enabled Landsat Data (WELD)

The 2012 Web-Enabled Landsat Data (WELD) GeoTIFF data products are now available from http://weld.cr.usgs.gov/. HDF tiled data can be downloaded from ftp://weldftp.cr.usgs.gov/

January 14, 2013 – LDCM Media Briefing Held

NASA recently held a media briefing about the upcoming launch of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), which is scheduled to launch February 11, 2013. Watch the video!

January 9, 2013 – Watch LDCM launch prep live

LDCM now resides at Vandenberg Air Force Base, but still have steps to go to get ready for launch on February 11, 2013. Watch the progress live!

January 7, 2013 – Landsat Science Team Meeting

Landsat Science Team members presented their research objectives and plans at a meeting in Washington, DC on December 12 -13, 2012. (Read More)

January 3, 2013 – Surface Reflectance Data Available

Landsat Surface Reflectance Climate Data Records (CDR) for Global Land Survey (GLS) collections 2000, 2005, and 2010 are now available from the Landsat CDR/ECV data set on EarthExplorer.

The Surface Reflectance CDR is one of a number of higher-level Landsat data products produced to support land surface change studies. More details about Surface Reflectance CDRs can be found on http://landsat.usgs.gov/PLSRP.php.