Collection-1 Landsat TM Level-2 Surface Reflectance (SR) Science Product

Landsat satellite data have been produced, archived, and distributed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) since 1972. Users rely on these data for historical study of land surface change, but shoulder the burden of post-production processing to create applications-ready data sets. In compliance with guidelines established through the Global Climate Observing System, USGS has embarked on production of higher-level Landsat data products to support land surface change studies. Terrestrial variables such as surface reflectance are being prototyped as fundamental input to higher level products such as Burned Area, Fractional Snow Covered Area, and Dynamic Surface Water Extent. These products are intended to provide a framework for producing long-term Landsat science data collections suited for monitoring, assessing, and predicting land surface change over time. \r\n\r\nProvisional Surface Reflectance is generated from specialized software called Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System (LEDAPS). LEDAPS was originally developed through a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) grant by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and the University of Maryland (Masek et al., 2006). The software applies Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) atmospheric correction routines to Level-1 Landsat 4 and 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) data. Water vapor, ozone, geopotential height, aerosol optical thickness, and digital elevation are input with Landsat data to Second Simulation of a Satellite Signal in the Solar Spectrum (6S) radiative transfer models to generate Top of Atmosphere (TOA) Reflectance, Surface Reflectance, Brightness Temperature, and masks for clouds, cloud shadows, adjacent clouds, land, and water. USGS has baselined LEDAPS (https://code.google.com/p/ledaps/) and delivers its results as Provisional Landsat Surface Reflectance.