USGS Landsat Science Products: From Algorithms to Operations

Recent improvements to the quality and usability of the USGS Landsat archive allow the USGS to develop research quality and analysis-ready Landsat Science Products. These products better enable data analysis for the end user by reducing the amount of time spent on data preparation and processing for time-series analysis. The USGS Earth Resources and Observation Science (EROS) Center follows a Science Algorithm to Operations (SATO) process that describes how a product is created from a research level algorithm into an operationally available product. The SATO process enables a smooth transition of researched, developed, and matured science algorithms and prototype executables into a formally developed and maintained operational environment. The EROS Landsat Science Office (LSO) works with principal investigators (PI) to ingest robust Landsat-based algorithms that are suitable for incubation in the EROS Science Processing Architecture (ESPA) and makes them available through an On-Demand Interface as a provisional product. The LSO regularly works with algorithm PIs to further refine products and incorporates feedback from the user community until the product reaches a high enough maturity to become an operational product. Currently, six operational Landsat Collection 2 Science Products and two Landsat Collection 2 provisional science products are available for users. The USGS provides Landsat Science Products to the user community to support scientific research and applications associated with the study of long-term trends in natural or human-induced changes to the Earth's surface. This presentation will review the SATO process, provide details about the available USGS Landsat science products, and how to access them.