Landsat Imagery from the University of Alaska Geophysical Institute, GeoData Center

Landsat imagery at the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute
includes data covering Alaska and the surrounding areas since 1972.
The collection is comprised primarily of Multispectral Scanner System
(MSS) data, although data from the Return Beam Vidicon (RBV) and
Thematic Mapper (TM) are also included.

The MSS provides repetitive acquisition of high-resolution
multispectral data of the earth's surface on a global basis. This
sensor package images a 100 nautical mile (185 km) wide swath directly
below the satellite as it passes over the Earth. Each scene, or frame
of data, covers an area 100 by 100 n. miles in size. The nominal size
of a pixel (picture element) for this sensor is 80 meters on a
side. Four separate bands (wavelengths) are recorded by the MSS:

Green 0.5-0.6 microns
Red 0.6-0.7 microns
Near IR1 0.7-0.8 microns
Near IR2 0.8-1.1 microns

Initially data were acquired directly from NASA, and were a subset of
the holdings of the EROS Data Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Starting in 1978, additional images were acquired from the Canadian
Centre for Remote Sensing. From 1982 to 1991, most of the coverage
was acquired by the Geophysical Institute Quick Look Project, which
operated recording equipment at the NOAA Gilmore Tracking Station near
Fairbanks. Scenes in the database that were acquired by the Quick-Look
program are so indicated. Much of this data IS NOT in the EROS Data
Center's data base and is therefore UNIQUE to this collection.

TM and RBV data included in the collection originally came from NASA,
the EROS Data Center or EOSAT, depending on the time of acquisition.
Their characteristics are described in the references listed for the
collection.