Terrestrial Biodiversity Adaptation Research Network

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Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+)

Description

The Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) is a sensor carried onboard the Landsat 7 satellite and has acquired images of the Earth nearly continuously since July 1999, with a 16-day repeat cycle.

An instrument malfunction occurred on May 31, 2003; as a result, all Landsat 7 image data acquired from July 14, 2003 (20:32:40 GMT) to the present were collected in SLC-off mode. Image data acquired from 5/31/03 (21:42:35 GMT) to 7/14/03 (20:32:40 GMT) and from 9/3/03 (01:32:15 GMT) to 9/17/03 (06:22:27 GMT) are not available.
On April 1, 2007, the Landsat 7 mission began imaging in an alternate mirror-scanning control mode from the original Scan Angle Monitor (SAM) process that has been used since the satellite was launched in 1999. This change, known as Bumper Mode, is necessary due to a predictable physical wear of the mirror bumpers mounted within the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) imaging system. Landsat 7 data users should notice little or no change as a result of this transition. Five years ago, the Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) scanner was successfully converted to this alternate imaging mode, and customers have reported no problems related to that change.
Landsat ETM+ image data consist of eight spectral bands (band designations), with a spatial resolution of 30 meters for bands 1 to 5 and band 7. Resolution for band 6 (thermal infrared) is 60 meters and resolution for band 8 (panchromatic) is 15 meters. Approximate scene size is 170 km north-south by 183 km east-west (106 mi by 114 mi).
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The Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) is a remotely sensed data management, systems development, and research field center for the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Geography Discipline.
SUMMARY
Type of data
GIS
Function
Satellite images
Format
ESRI shapefile
Licence
Free download.
Coverage
Australia, World wide
Resolution/Scale
30m
Coordinate System and Datum
UTMWGS 84
Source
Earth Resources Observation and Science Centre (EROS), USGS