The USGS archive contains the most complete and well-maintained collection of Landsat data. All Landsat data are available for free.
There are also many online resources for Landsat science products. Find out more below.
The Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) (external link)
The University of Maryland’s Global Land Cover Facility (GLCF) offers thousands of Landsat scenes and derived data products. The GLCF archive includes all of the Landsat GeoCover data, therefore, the archive contains at least one image from any where in the world (within Landsat coverage boundaries), except for Antarctica.
NASA’s Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System (LEDAPS) project is creating a record of forest disturbance and regrowth for North America from the Landsat satellite record, in support of the carbon modeling activities. LEDAPS relies on the decadal Landsat GeoCover data set supplemented by dense image time series for selected locations. Imagery is first atmospherically corrected to surface reflectance, and then change detection algorithms are used to extract disturbance area, type, and frequency. Reuse of the MODIS Land processing system (MODAPS) architecture allows rapid throughput of over 2200 MSS, TM, and ETM+ scenes. The site includes surface reflectance products and test products for continental disturbance.
*The TerraLook interface is no longer operational as of January 2017
TerraLook provides both ASTER and Landsat data as simulated natural-color JPEG images. TerraLook aims to serve user communities who have a need for images of the Earth but do not have technical remote sensing expertise or access to expensive and specialized scientific image processing software. TerraLook Collections consist of readily usable remotely sensed images designed for visual interpretation and are distributed at no cost to the user. TerraLook collections will be of value to anyone who wants to see the changes to Earth’s surface since 1972. The georeferenced TerraLook product is compatible with most GIS and web mapping applications.
Millennium Coral Reefs Landsat Archive
The Landsat 7 satellite data acquisition strategy facilitated the first complete cloud-free coverage of the world’s coral reefs. Landsat data for a number of these coral reef scenes were assembled by the University of South Florida and NASA’s Johnson Space Center and are available from the Millennium Coral Reefs Landsat Archive.
Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC)
MRLC is a group of federal agencies who joined together to purchase Landsat 5 imagery for the conterminous U.S. and to develop a land cover dataset called theNational Land Cover Dataset. In 1999, a second-generation MRLC consortium was formed to purchase three dates of Landsat 7 imagery for the entire United States and to coordinate the production of a comprehensive land cover database for the nation called the National Land Cover Database. The MRLC consortium is specifically designed to meet the current needs of Federal agencies for nationally consistent satellite remote sensing and land-cover data. However, the consortium also provides imagery and land cover data as public domain information. The MRLC data are in Albers Equal Area projection.
EOS-EarthData (external link)
EOS-WEBSTER is a digital library of Earth Science data at the University of New Hampshire. EOS-WEBSTER provides full scenes of Landsat 7 ETM+ data, Landsat 5 TM data, and Landsat 4/5 MSS data. The spatial extent includes the United States, Russia, South America and Southeast Asia regions and the temporal range is 1972 through 2001. Data resolution varies based on the spectral type, sensor type, and processing. Data are provided in ERDAS Imagine (.img) and band sequential (.bsq) formats.
Landsat.org (external link)
Michigan State University’s Landsat.org supports the purchasing, distribution, and sharing of Landsat 7 imagery worldwide by providing a simplified, platform-independent user interface and search engine with online data ordering. Landsat.org supports research centers, science teams, and educational organizations by providing customized search interfaces, access to data hosting services, clearinghouse services, data brokering, and imagery cooperatives. Use this web site to access archived imagery at substantial discounts or use their brokering services to order new ETM+ data.
Arizona Regional Image Archive (external link)
The University of Arizona sponsors this interdisciplinary resource system for digital image and map data. The archive focuses on the Sonoran desert region, including the US Southwest and northern Mexico. There is Landsat 7 ETM+ data available here, however, most of the Landsat scenes are older MSS and TM images.
GeoGratis (external link)
Natural Resources Canada offers free Canadian Landsat data at their GeoGratis web site. This includes both georectified and orthorectified data.
Urban Landsat: Cities from Space (external site)
A website featuring Landsat images of 77 international cities published by the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Each city is linked to a jpeg image of a Landsat visible/IR composite collected by Landsat 5 (pre 1999) or Landsat 7. Most of the image areas are 30×30 km but a few are larger. All images are shown at full resolution (30 m pixel) so the scale (on screen) is equivalent. The jpeg compression causes significant loss of fine detail from the original image. Most of the images are about 200K. A few are significantly larger.
