Downloading Landsat Data from the USGS EarthExplorer
Included in this tutorial:
Getting started and setting search criteria
Selecting datasets
Narrowing search results with optional search criteria
Reviewing and downloading datasets
Credits: L. Meisterlin with Moses Levich and Thiago Lee (2021)
This tutorial demonstrates downloading Landsat imagery raster datasets from the US Geological Survey through the Earth Explorer interface.
The example in this tutorial demonstrates the steps necessary to download this dataset:
US Geological Survey. “Scene LC80250392017080LGN00” [geoTIFF]. Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS, collection 1, level 1. 21 March 2017. Accessed 13 July 2021 from https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/
Getting Started
Visit the USGS Earth Explorer site at https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/.
Click Login to sign in with an existing USGS username and password, or click Create New Account and follow the steps to register if necessary.
Click here to sign in.
After logging in, return to the Earth Explorer site.
The Earth Explorer interface is divided into four tabs and starts by default on the Search Criteria tab.
the Earth Explorer interface
Setting Search Criteria
Searching by Geographic Boundaries
In the Search Criteria tab, under Polygon, use the map to navigate and zoom so that the desired area (Houston, TX, for this example) is visible, then click “Use Map”. This will narrow the search to datasets that intersect the area bounded by the map.
defining search boundaries with the map
Alternatively, the interface also allows a user to search in several other ways:
by place name under the Geocoder tab option,
with a specified Path/Row combination accessible through the Select a Geocoding Method > Path/Row dropdown menu,
by uploading a boundary file (choose the KML/Shapefile upload tab) or choosing from predefined geographic boundaries (from the Predefined Area tab next to the Polygon option demonstrated above), or
by defining the center and radius of a circle (Circle tab).
Specifying a Date Range and Cloud Cover Limit
At the bottom of the Search Criteria page, choose a desired date range and the acceptable level of cloud cover. In this example, a date range of 1 January to 30 September 2017 and cloud cover of less than 10% were specified.
specifying date range and cloud cover
To move on to the next section, click Data Sets at the bottom of the page.
Selecting Datasets
In the Data Sets tab, select your desired product from the menu. This example uses Landsat 8, Collection 1, Level 1 data, which can be accessed by clicking through Landsat > Collection 1 > Level 1 > Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS C1 Level-1
selecting Landsat 8 Collection 1 Level 1 data from the menu
To move on to the next section, click Additional Criteria at the bottom of the page.
EXTRA: More information about Landsat data products can be found on the USGS site: https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/nli/landsat.
Narrowing Results with Optional Search Criteria
The Additional Criteria tab provides many other ways to filter search results.
Path and Row
If you are searching for a specific Landsat scene, you can specify its path and row (or a range of paths/rows) under the Path and Row sections. The scene used in this demonstration is Path 25, Row 39 (specified here because they were not used in the initial search).
specifying Path and Row
EXTRA: Use the Landsat WRS-2 Path/Row to Latitude/Longitude Converter to identify the closest Landsat path and row (for missions using the WRS-2) from any given coordinate pair.
Day/Night Indicator
Under Day/Night Indicator use the dropdown menu to select between day and night imagery. This example searches for daytime imagery.
filtering for daytime imagery
To view the search results and choose datasets to download, click Results.
Reviewing and Downloading Data
Search Results
The Results tab displays all datasets that fit the search criteria. The search criteria demonstrated above return 4 datasets.
the Search Results tab
Check the geographical extent of a result with the Footprint button.
viewing the extent of a dataset with the footprint button
Downloading Data
To download a dataset, click the download icon, then select a format.
This example demonstrates downloading the Level-1 Path 25, Row 39 scene from 21 March 2017 in GeoTIFF format.
downloading a dataset
Note that for large files, the download may take some time to start.