Landsat Data Users Handbook PDF Download

This Landsat 8 (L8) Data Users Handbook is a living document prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat Project Science Office at the Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center in Sioux Falls, SD, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Landsat Project Science Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland. The purpose of this handbook is to provide a basic understanding and associated reference material for the L8 Observatory and its science data products. In doing so, this document does not include a detailed description of all technical details of the L8 mission, but instead focuses on the information that the users need to gain an understanding of the science data products. This handbook includes various sections that provide an overview of reference material and a more detailed description of applicable data user and product information. This document includes the following sections: Section 1 describes the background for the L8 mission as well as previous Landsat missions Section 2 provides a comprehensive overview of the current L8 Observatory, including the spacecraft, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) instruments, and the L8 concept of operations Section 3 includes an overview of radiometric and geometric instrument calibration as well as a description of the Observatory component reference systems and the Calibration Parameter File (CPF) Section 4 includes a comprehensive description of Level 1 products and product generation Section 5 addresses the conversion of Digital Numbers (DNs) to physical units Section 6 includes an overview of data search and access using the various online tools Appendix A contains the applicable reference materials, along with the list of known issues associated with L8 data Appendix B contains an example of the Level 1 product metadata This document is controlled by the Land Satellites Data System (LSDS) Configuration Control Board (CCB). Please submit changes to this document, as well as supportive material justifying the proposed changes, via a Change Request (CR) to the Process and Change Management Tool.