Download Landsat 8 images from EarthExplorer / USGS

Summary

This tutorial explains how to download Landsat 8 imagery from Earth Explorer. The video guides users through the process, from logging into the Earth Explorer website to selecting the area of interest, setting the date range, and filtering cloud cover. It covers choosing between Landsat image collections and downloading individual bands or the entire dataset. The tutorial also provides tips for avoiding download interruptions and demonstrates how to view the downloaded bands in QGIS software. The step-by-step guide ensures that users can effectively access and manage satellite imagery.

Takeaways

• 🌐 Navigate to Earth Explorer by searching for it in a browser, then select the first result with the official link.
• 🔑 You need to log into Earth Explorer to download satellite imagery. Creating an account is easy if you don’t have one.
• 🗺️ You can select your area of interest either by clicking directly on the map, drawing a rectangle, or typing the region's name.
• 📅 Choose a date range for the imagery; in the example, it's from January 2021 to April 2022. You can also filter by specific months.
• ☁️ Adjust the cloud cover settings to exclude images with too much cloud, for example, reducing it to 0-20%.
• 📊 You can choose how many results to display per page, with options from 10 up to 250.
• 🛰️ Landsat products are categorized by collections, like Landsat Collection 2 Level 1 and 2. Select based on your needs, such as surface temperature or atmospheric reflectance.
• 🔍 Use additional criteria like satellite type and cloud cover percentage to refine your search for images.
• 📸 Preview, view metadata, and footprint of the images before downloading to ensure the selection matches your requirements.
• 💾 You can download individual bands or the entire image set. Downloading individual bands can be faster and more efficient if there are internet issues.

Q & A

What is the first step in downloading Landsat 8 imagery from Earth Explorer?

The first step is to open your browser and search for 'Earth Explorer' in the search engine. Click on the first result, which is the official Earth Explorer website.

Do you need an account to download satellite products from Earth Explorer?

Yes, you need to log into Earth Explorer to download satellite products. If you don't have an account, you can easily create one on the Earth Explorer website.

What are the different methods available to select your area of interest on Earth Explorer?

You can select your area of interest by directly clicking on the map, drawing a rectangle or polygon over the area, or typing in the region name in the search bar.

How can you customize the date range for the imagery you want to download?

You can specify the date range by selecting the start and end dates in the 'Date Range' section. You can also customize the search by choosing specific months if you don't need images from the entire year.

Why is it important to adjust the cloud cover percentage when searching for Landsat 8 imagery?

Adjusting the cloud cover percentage is important because imagery with high cloud cover may not be suitable for analysis. You can set the cloud cover range to filter out images with too much cloud coverage.

What are the differences between Landsat Collection 2 Level 1 and Level 2 products?

Landsat Collection 2 Level 1 includes panchromatic images and allows for top-of-atmospheric reflectance calculations, while Level 2 includes surface temperature and surface reflectance data but does not include the panchromatic band.

How can you filter the search results to show only Landsat 8 imagery?

In the 'Additional Criteria' section, you can filter the results by selecting 'Landsat 8' under the 'Satellite' option.

What are the two methods available for downloading the Landsat 8 imagery and what are their advantages?

You can download the entire band set at once or download each band individually. Downloading individually is beneficial because if the download is interrupted, you only need to re-download the affected band rather than the entire dataset.

Why is it important to download the metadata file along with the Landsat 8 imagery?

The metadata file contains important information about the imagery, such as acquisition date, sensor details, and location. This data is essential for proper analysis of the images.

How can you view and stack the downloaded bands in QGIS?

After downloading the bands, you can add them to a new project in QGIS. You can then stack the bands by selecting the desired combination, such as bands 5, 4, and 3, to view the composite image.

Outlines

00:00

🌍 Introduction to Downloading Landsat 8 Imagery

In this introductory segment, the video begins with a welcome and an overview of the topic: downloading Landsat 8 imagery from Earth Explorer. It explains how to start by searching for 'Earth Explorer' on a browser and navigating to the USGS Earth Explorer website. The importance of logging in is emphasized, and viewers are guided on how to create an account if they don’t already have one. The video also references an additional tutorial on creating an account.

05:03

🗺️ Navigating the Map and Selecting an Area of Interest

This paragraph delves into the process of selecting an area of interest for downloading imagery. The video shows how to navigate the map, either by manually selecting a region like Kochi, India, or by drawing a rectangle to define the area. It covers different methods of selecting coordinates and highlights using global features or predefined locations to help pinpoint regions of interest.

10:04

📅 Setting Date Ranges and Customizing Search Criteria

This section walks through how to set a specific date range for Landsat imagery downloads (from January 2021 to April 2022 in this example). It explains how to choose specific months for imagery selection and discusses the cloud cover filter. Users are shown how to narrow their search to minimize cloud interference, adjusting the cloud cover percentage range from 0-20%. It also covers setting the number of results displayed per page, offering flexibility in how much data is presented.

15:11

🛰️ Selecting Satellite Products and Landsat Image Levels

The video describes selecting specific satellite products from the Landsat series, focusing on Landsat 8/9. It explains the difference between Landsat Collection 2 Level 1 and Level 2 imagery, such as the inclusion of panchromatic bands and atmospheric reflectance data in Level 1. Users are guided through choosing the right product based on their analysis needs. Additionally, further filtering options for satellite images, such as cloud cover and specific product types, are demonstrated.

📊 Viewing Results and Image Previews

In this paragraph, the tutorial shows how to review search results after filtering, displaying various images that match the set criteria. It guides users on how to preview imagery and check essential metadata, including acquisition dates, paths, sensors, and satellite details. The video emphasizes examining footprints to see the geographic area covered by the image, providing a clearer understanding of what each image captures.

💾 Downloading Images and Metadata

This section provides instructions on downloading the images and associated metadata. It explains the option of downloading entire image sets or individual bands (e.g., Band 1, Band 2). The benefits of downloading images in smaller portions are highlighted to avoid interruptions due to connectivity issues. It also stresses the importance of downloading the metadata file, which contains crucial information for analyzing the imagery.

🔍 Reviewing and Using Downloaded Bands in QGIS

The final part of the tutorial demonstrates how to open downloaded imagery in QGIS, a geographic information system. The video shows the process of importing different bands (e.g., Band 1, 2, 3, etc.) and stacking them for analysis. It walks through changing band combinations (e.g., 5, 4, 3) and viewing the final output imagery. The video concludes with a note encouraging viewers to ask questions in the comments.

Keywords

💡Landsat 8 Imagery

Landsat 8 imagery refers to satellite images captured by the Landsat 8 satellite. These images are used for observing Earth's surface and are critical in environmental monitoring, urban planning, and disaster management. In the video, the speaker explains how to download Landsat 8 imagery from the Earth Explorer website, focusing on selecting specific regions and date ranges.

💡Earth Explorer

Earth Explorer is an online platform provided by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) that allows users to search, view, and download satellite data, including Landsat imagery. In the video, the process of navigating to the Earth Explorer website, logging in, and searching for satellite images is demonstrated step-by-step.

💡Area of Interest (AOI)

Area of Interest (AOI) refers to the specific geographic region that a user selects for downloading satellite imagery. In the video, the speaker explains different methods for selecting an AOI, such as manually drawing a rectangle on the map or typing in a region name, like 'Kochi' in India.

💡Cloud Cover

Cloud cover represents the percentage of an image obscured by clouds, which can affect the visibility of surface features in satellite imagery. The video shows how to filter search results by limiting cloud cover, suggesting values between 0-20% for clearer images.

💡Date Range

The date range refers to the specific time period for which the user wants to download satellite images. In the video, the speaker selects a date range from January 2021 to April 2022 and explains how to filter imagery results based on this selection.

💡Landsat Collection 2

Landsat Collection 2 is the updated collection of Landsat data that provides higher-quality images and advanced processing levels. In the video, the speaker mentions selecting Landsat Collection 2 data, with Level 1 providing panchromatic bands and Level 2 offering surface reflectance and temperature products.

💡Panchromatic Band

A panchromatic band is a single-band grayscale image that captures a wide range of wavelengths, typically used for sharpening other images. The speaker in the video explains that Landsat Collection 2 Level 1 imagery includes the panchromatic band, while Level 2 does not.

💡Metadata

Metadata refers to information about the satellite image, such as the date it was captured, geographic coordinates, and satellite sensor details. In the video, the speaker stresses the importance of downloading the metadata file along with the image for analysis and provides a demonstration of how to access it.

💡Band Combination

Band combination involves selecting specific spectral bands from satellite imagery to display different surface features. For example, in the video, the speaker demonstrates using a 5-4-3 band combination to visualize the image, and explains how different combinations can highlight various features like vegetation or water bodies.

💡Download Options

Download options refer to the different methods available for retrieving satellite data from Earth Explorer. In the video, the speaker explains how users can either download the entire image dataset at once or download individual bands separately, with the latter option being recommended if network issues might interrupt a large download.

Highlights

Introduction to downloading Landsat 8 imagery from Earth Explorer.

Instructions to open Earth Explorer by searching for it in a web browser.

Log into Earth Explorer account before accessing satellite imagery.

Option to select the area of interest (AOI) on the map or by entering coordinates.

Demonstration of selecting Kochi, India as the AOI for Landsat 8 imagery.

Option to select a custom date range for imagery, demonstrated with dates from January 2021 to April 2022.

Customization of search criteria by selecting specific months and filtering cloud cover to reduce unwanted clouds in images.

Choosing Landsat 8/9 OLI/TIRS Series under the Landsat Collection 2 Level 2 data.

Explanation of the differences between Landsat Collection 2 Level 1 and Level 2 imagery.

Ability to filter results by satellite and cloud cover percentage for more refined results.

Review of image metadata and preview of Landsat images before download.

Option to download entire datasets or individual bands from the selected image.

Importance of downloading the metadata file along with image bands for analysis.

Demonstration of downloading individual bands to avoid potential download interruptions.

Visualization of downloaded imagery in QGIS by loading and stacking the image bands.

Transcripts

hi hello everyone welcome to terra

special in this video tutorial we are

going to see how to download landsat 8

imagery from earth explorer

so once you have opened your browser

on the search just type earth explorer

you can see here

earth explorer

so you can you can see here the first

result at the explorer it arrives

just click here the official web link is

earth explorer.usgs.jov

you can just see here

so now we just click on the earth

explorer the first result

so once we have landed to the webpage of

the earth explorer

here we can download lot a lot of our

satellite products

so in order to download such products

first we must log into it

so for that you can see the option

see on the right hand side corner login

just select it

and if you don't have an account in

earth explorer it's really easy to

create an account in earth explorer i

have put in video on it so how to create

an account an earth explorer i'll be

just sharing with you in the description

description bar

and as well as i will be putting it in

the cards you can just check it

so right now we just sign it

so once we have signed in

so you can see two options are available

one on the right side you can see the

map navigation map you can just easily

navigate

to any region

and on the left side you can see here

such criteria

here first of all we need to pick up the

area which we are interested in

so there are multiple ways to do it

for example

i'll be taking a case

of india so i need it

i need

landsat 8 imagery for coaching

that is a kochi

so you can directly

click on the map

so it will be highlighted here

and you can see here it has its uh lat

long has been marked

so

automatically this location can be used

for searching

the imagery for the particular area

otherwise there is another option where

you can draw a rectangle

like this you can draw a rectangle

of the area you are interested in

likewise you can just draw it

it can be of any shape

this vertices can be of any numbers as

well

so here this is one of the way to select

the uh area of interest there is another

method for it

so i just clear the coordinates here

here you can see

us features

so if you are searching for us you can

just use it and type in the

area which you are interested in

otherwise you can just select the world

features

and we need to type the region name

so in this case i am going to type kochi

and select the button show

so once you have selected a button

uh you could see uh multiple results

based on the

name of the uh region so here kochi

you can see several places are there

which is a similar uh having their

similar name kochi

so i am going to select india

so you can see here it has been

automatically

selected

and you can see the light long has been

marked so this is one of the method

so i am going to select it using the

rectangle method

as i know

my area of interest so

i just select it using the

rectangle method

by drawing polygon

so now i have selected a region so the

next thing is that just come down

here we can specify the date range

in this case i need it from 2021

january to

2022 april

first we need to type in the month

so i need it from january 2021

to april 2022

and here you can see search months

so you can customize the search months

for example you don't know don't need

for uh all month instead you are just a

hand-picking few months

for example in this case i am going to

pick up

january february

march and april

so these are the months

which i have selected otherwise you can

just leave it as it is this is the

result will be showing you

for the

12 months

and the next thing is that we can

select the cloud cover

here defaultly it is ranging from 0 to

100 percentage so we can't do any

analysis with the cloud 100 percentage

so i am going to reduce it

and i just bring it to

twenty

twenty percent zero to twenty percent of

cloud cover that is what i have selected

or you can select zero to five

percentage

and the next thing is that we are going

to

go to the result option

here

the result per page so how many scenes

should it show

so in a page uh it it will be showing

you 10.

you need some more

results

it can show up to 250 per page

so here i am just uh opting for 10

so it is very optimal

if you need you can just increase it

and now we go to the next option that is

selecting the data

here you can see lot of satellite

products are available

and

here we need to come down to the option

landsat series sorry landsat

just click on the plus button

you could see the landsat collection 2

and level 2 landsat collection 2 and

level 1.

here we are going to select

landsat collection2

under that we need to select landsat 8 9

ola tri series

so i'm just selecting it

so the difference between the landsat

collection 2 level 2 and landsat

collection 2 level 1 is that

so in landsat uh landsat collection 2

level 1

it will be

having

the landsat 8

images will be having the panchromatic

image and you can perform the top of

atmospheric reflectance

in

landsat collection 2 and level 2

we can't find the pantomatic band as

well as

here the surface

surface temperature and surface

reflectant can be

done

so for that it can be used

uh here the landsat 2 collection will be

having the panchromatic band and you can

also

calculate the top of atmospheric

reflectance

so for that you can go opt for

landsat collection two and level one so

these are the main difference between

two of these

images

so right now i have selected landsat

correction 2 and level 2.

now

just go to the option additional

criteria

so you can see a few options are

available here

so under satellite just click on the

press add filter

so defaultly it is selected all

here i need only landsat 8 series so i'm

just selecting landsat 8.

and here

the next thing is that

land cloud cover

here we can specify how much of the

scene

should the cloud cover

so in this case i am going to select 0

to

18

and next is that we are going to go to

the results

just click on the results button

now you could see here the results have

arrived

there are around seven results which is

available

so you can see here so for march month

for our february

february january

march

so it has been filtered based on our

customization so we have opted for a few

months only

so

it has been provided with those months

so here i am just uh selecting the

image you could see here

first i need to see the footprints

so the single image is covering this

much of area that is what you can see in

the footprint

and you can see the date of acquired

that is 2021 3 20

uh 2021 march month

zero two

now you could just preview the image

show browse overlay you can just see

here

so it's just a small preview of the

image

and you can see

the metadata here just select

so you could find some more options

you can just click here and see the

image how the image looks like you can

just preview it

like this you can just preview it

you can just check the date when it was

acquired

so what is the collection category

you can check the path

road

sensor which sensor it is from which

satellite

zone

so likewise you can see the metadata

now in order to download this

you can see the option download

you can see the download option here so

the icon

just click here

so here product option just click here

so the downloads can be of two methods

you can directly download the entire

band set by clicking here

it is around

876.51 mb

otherwise you can just manually

download each of the bands

for example you can just see here this

is the band 1 band 2 band 3 band 4 you

can just download it individually the

advantage between these two are

while you are downloading it as a large

data set

sometimes the download can be stopped

because of the internet uh issues or

some other server problem

so you want

once it had been stopped you need to

download it entirely

so it might be taking a extra time

instead of that you can

download each pan separately it will be

saving you time

so if it is cancelled also you can just

once again put it for the download it

will be downloaded

quite easily

so you can just download one by one

and please uh make sure that you

download the

metadata file

that you can see here so this is the

metadata file

uh it is having the complete information

about the imagery

you can just uh download this don't

forget to download the metadata file so

that will be useful for a lot of

analysis

you can download by click clicking this

the entire batch will be downloaded

together

otherwise you can uh download one by one

so you can see here band two band three

band four band five six seven

seven bands are available here

and band 10 is available

so in this example i need a band

six five four

three so these are the bands which are

uh

required so i just put

i just downloaded

so you can see here once you have

clicked

it will be automatically open a tab and

it will be starting to download

you can see the download has been

started here

so likewise we can uh

download each band

so i am downloading the second band

so if you are opting for the entire

image download it might be taking some

time

so that is why i have just opted to

download the single bands

so this will be much faster than this

and you can see here the band 2 has been

started download

so now we just go on to the band 3

so band 3 has also been started

band 3 band 4

so likewise i am going to select down

select and download band 5 and band 6 as

well

finally bandsix

and we need to download the metadata

file

so likewise you can download the each

band and metadata

of this imagery

otherwise you can also select this and

download the entire product will be

downloaded

so now i'm just closing it

so you can see here right now i have

downloaded the metadata file

i have downloaded the

band 4 band 2 band 1

band 5 and band 6 are remaining

so you can see here the download has

been successfully finished we just open

the folder

in order to see the downloads

so you can see here

we have downloaded band 1 band 2 band 3

4 5 6 and we have also downloaded the

metadata file

so let us open the qgis and let us have

a look at it

so now i am just opening the

new empty project

adding the image

adding the band

so i have added the file here

so you can see here band 1

band 2

band 3

4

five and six

so these are the downloaded bands

now i just go on to the sip two

here i'm going to select band set

and you can see here

these are the bands which are available

so once again i just

go

downloads

so i just bring back the

downloaded advance

select it

so let me just

do once again

so let me remove this pans and put it

once again

so i have cleared the entire thing so

once again i am going to

start the file here

click on option button open

now you can see here these are the bands

which are available

so i'm just going to stack it

so you can see here the result has come

out

so you can see the imagery which we have

downloaded

we can also change the

bands

for example 5

4

three

so this is the combination which i am

going to keep

so you could see here

so likewise if i just change the

sequence

so if you have any doubts in uh

downloading the landsat 8 imagery then

just ask in the comment section thanks

for watching tera special goodbye