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USGS2026

ECCOE Landsat quarterly calibration and validation report—Quarter 4, 2025

Executive Summary The U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) Center of Excellence (ECCOE) focuses on improving the accuracy, precision, calibration, and product quality of remote-sensing data, leveraging years of multiscale optical system geometric and radiometric calibration and characterization experience. The ECCOE Landsat Cal/Val Team continually monitors the geometric and radiometric performance of active Landsat missions and makes calibration adjustments, as needed, to maintain data quality at the highest level. This report provides observed geometric and radiometric analysis results for Landsats 8 and 9 for quarter 4 (October–December) of 2025. All data used to compile the Cal/Val analysis results presented in this report are freely available from the U.S. Geological Survey EarthExplorer website: https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov . One specific activity that the ECCOE Landsat Cal/Val Team closely monitored was a Landsat 9 safehold anomaly. On October 17, 2025, Landsat 9 experienced a Solar Array Drive Assembly potentiometer fault. The onboard fault response put both the Operational Land Imager sensor and the Thermal Infrared Sensor into safe mode. Additionally, the Thermal Infrared Sensor focal plane assembly was turned off, but the cryocooler remained on. On October 20, 2025, the Solar Array Drive Assembly recovery commanding was successfully performed to put the spacecraft into nadir viewing mode. The following day, Operational Land Imager activation and recovery started, including focal plane assembly warmup. After reaching nominal operational temperatures and achieving thermal stability, science imaging resumed on October 23, 2025. Additional information about the Landsat 9 safehold anomaly is here: https://www.usgs.gov/landsat-missions/news/landsat-9-returns-normal-operations-following-brief-safehold .

Open-File Report↗

USGS2026

ECCOE Landsat quarterly calibration and validation report—Quarter 3, 2025

Executive Summary The U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) Center of Excellence (ECCOE) focuses on improving the accuracy, precision, calibration, and product quality of remote-sensing data, leveraging years of multiscale optical system geometric and radiometric calibration and characterization experience. The ECCOE Landsat Cal/Val Team continually monitors the geometric and radiometric performance of active Landsat missions and makes calibration adjustments, as needed, to maintain data quality at the highest level. This report provides observed geometric and radiometric analysis results for Landsats 8 and 9 for quarter 3 (July–September) of 2025. All data used to compile the Cal/Val analysis results presented in this report are freely available from the U.S. Geological Survey EarthExplorer website: https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov .

Open-File Report↗

USGS2026

ECCOE Landsat Quarterly Calibration and Validation Report—Quarter 2, 2025

Executive Summary The U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) Center of Excellence (ECCOE) focuses on improving the accuracy, precision, calibration, and product quality of remote-sensing data, leveraging years of multiscale optical system geometric and radiometric calibration and characterization experience. The ECCOE Landsat Cal/Val Team continually monitors the geometric and radiometric performance of active Landsat missions and makes calibration adjustments, as needed, to maintain data quality at the highest level. This report provides observed geometric and radiometric analysis results for Landsats 8 and 9 for quarter 2 (April–June) of 2025. All data used to compile the Cal/Val analysis results presented in this report are freely available from the U.S. Geological Survey EarthExplorer website: https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov .

Open-File Report↗

USGS2025

ECCOE Landsat quarterly calibration and validation report—Quarter 1, 2025

Executive Summary The U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) Center of Excellence (ECCOE) focuses on improving the accuracy, precision, calibration, and product quality of remote-sensing data, leveraging years of multiscale optical system geometric and radiometric calibration and characterization experience. The ECCOE Landsat Cal/Val Team continually monitors the geometric and radiometric performance of active Landsat missions and makes calibration adjustments, as needed, to maintain data quality at the highest level. This report provides observed geometric and radiometric analysis results for Landsats 8 and 9 for quarter 1 (January–March) of 2025. All data used to compile the Cal/Val analysis results presented in this report are freely available from the U.S. Geological Survey EarthExplorer website: https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov .

Open-File Report↗

USGS2025

ECCOE Landsat quarterly Calibration and Validation report—Quarter 4, 2024

Executive Summary The U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) Center of Excellence focuses on improving the accuracy, precision, calibration, and product quality of remote-sensing data, leveraging years of multiscale optical system geometric and radiometric calibration and characterization experience. The Earth Resources Observation and Science Cal/Val Center of Excellence Landsat Cal/Val Team continually monitors the geometric and radiometric performance of active Landsat missions and makes calibration adjustments, as needed, to maintain data quality at the highest level. This report provides observed geometric and radiometric analysis results for Landsats 8 and 9 for quarter 4 (October–December) of 2024. All data used to compile the Cal/Val analysis results presented in this report are freely available from the U.S. Geological Survey EarthExplorer website: https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov .

Open-File Report↗

USGS2019

Landsat 1-5 Multispectral Scanner System (MSS) sensors radiometric calibration update

First launched in 1972, the Landsat satellite sensors have provided the longest continuous record of high quality images of the Earth’s surface that are used in both civilian and military applications. The Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) sensor was on-board Landsat-1 through Landsat-5. In fact, the MSS sensors provide the only systematic global multispectral space-based imagery of the Earth’s surface from 1972 to 1982. This paper focuses on the radiometric calibration update of the Landsat 1-5 MSS sensors. The radiometric calibration was performed in both radiance and reflectance-based scales through cross-calibration approach. Simultaneous or a near simultaneous image collections were available for MSS sensor pairs and used for the cross-calibration. The estimated uncertainties for this calibration update exhibit progressively decreasing calibration accuracy, ranging from 5.1% for MSS 5 to 8.8% for MSS-1 in the Green spectral band, for example. Lastly, the new radiometric calibration coefficients were validated through the use of pseudo invariant calibration sites (PICS). The temporal TOA Radiance and TOA Reflectance over the Sonoran Desert were plotted with the purpose of verifying the lifetime radiometric stability of MSS sensors. With the previous calibration, the agreement between the measurements of TOA Reflectance over the Sonoran Desert was around 7.5% for all spectral bands. With the calibration update implemented in this study, the agreement between MSS sensors is 3.6%, 2.9%, 3.5% and 5.9% for the Green, Red, NIR-1 and NIR 2 spectral bands, respectively. This study ties all the Landsat legacy instruments from Landsat-1 MSS through Landsat-8 OLI to a consistent radiometric scale.

IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing↗