Validity of the Landsat surface reflectance archive for aquatic science: Implications for cloud-based analysis

Author(s)

Maciel, Daniel Andrade ; Pahlevan, Nima ; Barbosa, Claudio Clemente Faria ; de Novo, Evlyn Marcia Leao de Moraes ; Paulino, Rejane Souza ; Martins, Vitor Souza ; Vermote, Eric ; Crawford, Christopher J.

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: LIMNOLOGY AND OCEANOGRAPHY LETTERS; v. N/A, p. 9-pg., 2023-08-06.

Abstract

Originally developed for terrestrial science and applications, the US Geological Survey Landsat surface reflectance (SR) archive spanning similar to 40 yr of observations has been increasingly utilized in large-scale water-quality studies. These products, however, have not been rigorously validated using in situ measured reflectance. This letter quantifies and demonstrates the quality of the SR products by harnessing a sizeable global dataset (N = 1100). We found that the Landsat 8/9 SR in the green and red bands marginally meet the targeted accuracy requirements (30%), whereas the uncertainties in the blue and coastal-aerosol bands ranged from 48% to 110%. We further observed > +25% biases in the visible bands of Landsat 5/7 SR, which can introduce an apparent downward trend when applied in time-series analyses combined with Landsat 8/9. Users must exercise caution when using this archive for trend analyses, and progress in atmospheric correction is required to foster advanced applications of the Landsat archive for aquatic science. (AU)

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