[GRASS-dev] Landsat Metadata (MTL) File Changes Coming September 2014

[Helmut Kudrnovsky]

fyi

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http://landsat.usgs.gov/about_LU_Vol_8_Issue_3.php#1a

In September, the following changes will be made to the Metadata (MTL) file
distributed with the Landsat Level 1 data products:

    Remove Padding (Extra Lines)
    This change will remove the extra lines that are currently at the end of
the MTL file, which were historically used to distribute a fixed-size file
to support the HDF4 format. Since GeoTIFF is now the only data format
provided, the bytes at the end of the file are not needed, and the extra
lines will be removed. Samples of the modified MTL files are available to
download from
http://landsat.usgs.gov/documents/remtlpaddingchangestexttoreview.zip. (4.77
KB)


    Ground Control Point (GCP) versioning to be added to Landsat MTL File

    The version number of the GCPs used to register an image will be
recorded in the MTL file following the next processing system release in
September 2014. The Landsat Project is improving the ground control points
(GCPs) used to georegister Landsat products.

    The much higher geolocation accuracy of Landsat 8 makes it possible to
significantly improve the absolute accuracy of Landsat data products for all
Landsat sensors. For more information about the phased GCP Improvement Plan
with details on the Phase 1 GCPs to be released in September, please see the
July 1, 2014, headlines at
http://landsat.usgs.gov/mission_headlines2014.php.

    The new metadata parameter will only be provided for any scene that
processes to a Level 1 Precision and Terrain-Corrected (L1T) product
(PRODUCT_TYPE = "L1T"). The metadata parameter names for the GCP versioning
are provided below:

    Group name: IMAGE_ATTRIBUTES
    Parameter name: GROUND_CONTROL_POINTS_VERSION

    GCP versioning and the release of the Phase 1 GCPs take effect with
Landsat Level 1 Product Generation System (LPGS) releases identified below
and all future releases:

    PROCESSING_SOFTWARE_VERSION = “LPGS_2.4.0” for Landsat 8 products
    PROCESSING_SOFTWARE_VERSION = "LPGS_12.5.0" for Landsat 1-7 products

    L1T products created in prior releases will not have the versioning
field. See the Landsat L1 Data Format Control Books (DFCB) for more
information about the MTL files
(http://landsat.usgs.gov/tools_project_documents.php).

    Users can use the GCP version in combination with GCP release notes to
determine which scenes are impacted with each version number. A list of the
171 path/rows with GCPs updated in GCP Improvement Phase 1
(GROUND_CONTROL_POINTS_VERSION =”2”) can be found here.

    All images for path/rows updated in Phase 1 will be removed from the
online storage and will be reprocessed. We recommend reordering all images
associated with Phase 1 path/rows. Guidance for future releases will be
provided at the time of their release.



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best regards
Helmut
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