Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Opening the Landsat Archive

October 25, 2008

The USGS Landsat archive holds an unequaled 36-year record of the Earth's surface that is invaluable to climate change studies, forest and resource management activities, and emergency response operations.

An aggressive effort is taking place to provide all Landsat imagery [scenes currently held in the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center archive, as well as newly acquired scenes daily] free of charge to users with electronic access via the Web by the end of December 2008. The entire Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) archive acquired since 1999 and any newly acquired Landsat 7 ETM+ images that have less than 40 percent cloud cover are currently available for download.

When this endeavor is complete all Landsat 1-5 data will also be available for download. This includes Landsat 1-5 Multispectral Scanner (MSS) scenes, as well as Landsat 4 and 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) scenes.

Publication Year 2008
Title Opening the Landsat Archive
DOI 10.3133/fs20083091
Authors
Publication Type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Series Title Fact Sheet
Series Number 2008-3091
Index ID fs20083091
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center