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LANDSAT archives now available

On 23 November 2011, over 30 years of archived data from the US Landsat Earth-observing satellites became available, free of charge. The majority of these products are unique to ESA’s (European Space Agency) archive and have never before been accessible anywhere else by the scientific user community.

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In its archives, ESA holds around two million products that cover Europe and North Africa. The total amount of data available is worth about 450 terabytes – that’s equivalent to about 900 000 hours of audio recorded at CD quality. ESA has been acquiring Landsat data at European stations since the 1970s.

ESA has been acquiring Landsat data at European stations since the 1970s.

“The missions were the main data source for many years during the 1980s when Earth observation started at ESA’s ESRIN centre in Italy,” said Gunther Kohlhammer, Head of the Ground Segment Department.

ESA revised its Earth observation data policy in 2010 to adapt to the “Joint Principles for a Sentinel Data Policy”. This policy was approved by ESA Member States participating in the GMES Space Component Programme, and supports the concept of providing free and open access to data.

To access the data, users can submit a brief project description and request data at “EOPI”: http://eopi.esa.int/esa/esa?cmd=aodetail&aoname=landsat

ESA then assigns the project a quota based on the system’s current processing capacity. When the data are ready, the user will receive directions for online retrieval.

In order to allow improved and faster access, ESA will soon begin gradually to process all data into an online archive for users to access independently. Owing to the vast amount of data, this process will take about two years.

ESA’s ESRIN centre, Italy

The Landsat series goes back to 1972, with Landsat-5 and -7 currently in orbit. Landsat-8 is due for launch by early 2013.

The 40-year-old Landsat programme is jointly managed by NASA and the US Geological Survey. ESA supports the Landsat series as a Third Party Mission, meaning it uses its ground infrastructure and expertise to acquire, process and distribute Landsat data to users.

“It is great finally to open the archives. We are keen to get the data to the users – especially in preparation for Sentinel-2, which is built on the heritage and knowledge of 40 years of Landsat,” says Bianca Hoersch, Third Party Mission Manager.

Source GMES.Info]=631&tx_ttnews[backPid]=1&cHash=e005486b755807faa11bb02364489d8f