Download imagery from an online database

Search Landsat satellite databases for multispectral imagery of Singapore.

Duration Difficulty
1hr(s) Beginner

The Landsat satellite program, managed by

the
United
States Geological Survey (USGS) and the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has continually collected imagery
since 1972, covering the entire
earth. This massive repository contains more than four million
images, all available via public download—but the
challenge for
users is finding the most appropriate pictures. In this lesson, you're an urban planner researching
Singapore, a densely populated city-state island in Southeast Asia, and you are looking for imagery to support a
development planning project. Using the USGS Global Visualization Viewer (GloVis) app, you'll identify and
download a Landsat image representing Singapore. You'll then open the image in
ArcGIS Pro and customize its
rendering.

This lesson was last tested on May 17, 2022, using ArcGIS Pro 3.0. If you're using a different version of ArcGIS Pro,
you may encounter different functionality and results.

Requirements

ArcGIS Pro (get a free trial)

900 MB of hard drive space

Lesson Plan

Find and download an image

45 minutes
Use GloVis to locate an image of Singapore.

Prepare the image

15 minutes
Open the image in ArcGIS Pro and symbolize it.

Find and download an image

To find a Landsat image of Singapore, you'll use the GloVis app to explore the entire database of free Landsat
imagery. You want a relatively recent image with minimal cloud cover. To download the image, you'll create a free
account for the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, which will allow you to download
as much Landsat data as you want.

Landsat imagery can be large. The file you'll download in this lesson has a size of approximately 900 MB. Ensure
that you have enough disk space on your computer, and enough time to wait for the download, before
proceeding.
Create an account
To download Landsat data, you need a USGS EROS account. The account is free, but it does require you to give
demographic survey data and contact information. If you already have a USGS EROS account, skip to the next
section.

1. Go to the EROS Registration System.

2. Follow the onscreen instructions to proceed through the registration process.

Once you complete your registration, a message is sent to your email address to confirm your registration.

3. Click the link in the email to activate your account.

Locate Singapore
Next, you'll open GloVis and navigate to Singapore.

1. Open the GloVis home page.

This page explains some of the new features you can experience.

2. Click Launch GloVis to open GloVis.

GloVis appears.
3. If necessary, close the Would you like to take a tour? window.

The viewer opens to the default location in the center of the United States. The Interface Controls pane
includes parameters to search for Landsat imagery. The toolbar at the bottom of the viewer includes a time
line and additional map controls to explore the imagery layers. First, you'll turn off the default data set so
you can navigate the map extent to Singapore.

4. In the Interface Controls pane, under Choose Your Data Set(s), turn off Global Land Survey.

5. On the toolbar at the top of the map, click Jump to and choose Lat/Lng.

The Jump to Lat/Lng window appears.

You will enter the coordinates for the center of Singapore.

6. In the Jump to Lat/Lng window, for Latitude, type 1.36, and for Longitude, type 103.82. Click Jump to
Location.

The map extent centers on the city-state of Singapore.

Most of the island is heavily urbanized, with a few open green areas on the western and central parts of the
island. Although the viewer has a scale bar in the lower corner, at this extent, it's difficult to discern
Singapore's size relative to other geographic features.

7. Zoom out five or six times. Notice the size of Singapore relative to the surrounding countries, like Malaysia
and Indonesia.
 8. Zoom back to Singapore.

A country the size of a single city presents unique challenges for land use and urban development.
Although Singapore has expanded its area by reclaiming land from the sea, its confines remain generally
fixed, necessitating stringent planning. But proper planning requires quality data.

Find an image
A real urban planning project would use a variety of data types from many sources. The single image you'll
download from the Landsat imagery database will serve as a starting point, providing a high-quality look at the
entire city. Landsat imagery is multispectral, meaning it can be displayed with different bands of visible light to
emphasize features such as vegetation, coastlines, or man-made structures. The image will be a good reference to
which you can add more specialized data.

To search for your image, you will first select the specific type of imagery you are interested in.

1. In the Interface Controls pane, under Choose Your Data Set(s), review the dataset listed.

GloVis contains many imagery datasets, each one produced by a different satellite or aerial photography
program. For instance, it includes the output of several U.S. Landsat missions and European Sentinel-2
satellites, all covering the entire earth.

Note:
You can click the View Data Set Information button to learn more about each dataset.

In this lesson, you are interested in finding a Landsat 8 image.

2. Under Choose Your Data Set(s), turn on Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS C1 Level-1.

 The Landsat 8 data filter updates, mentioning that there are 204 scenes (or images) matching your criteria.
This means that there are 204 Landsat 8 images showing Singapore latitude and longitude.

Next, you will limit your search to a specific date range. You want an image that is relatively recent, so you'll
define the range as 2015 to the present date.

3. Under Metadata Filter, for Date Range, set the range from 01/01/2015 to today’s date.

Note:
Under Months, you can also limit the search to a specific month, such as July. This can be useful to for
tracking seasonal trends over several years such as summer droughts or wildfires. For a general
reference image, the month of the year doesn't matter.

4. Click Apply.

All images within the map extent that meet your criteria are returned. The Choose Your Data Set(s) section
now indicates that 170 Landsat 8 scenes were found.

Note:
Because new Landsat images are added to the database daily, your search may have returned more
images. It may also have a more recent image displayed on the map than in the example images.
5. On the bottom toolbar, click Next several times to browse through some of the 170 available images.

The current image is displayed on the map along with a marker on the time line. You may notice that many
of the images are partially or almost completely covered by clouds. This is not surprising, as the climate in
Singapore is equatorial, which means it is hot, humid, and rainy throughout much of the year. You'll limit
your search to images with a low cloud cover: clouds should not be present on more than 10 percent of the
image.

6. For Cloud Cover, enter 0 to 10, and click Apply.

The map updates to show the new set of available images. There are now only two scenes that meet the
criteria you specified.

7. On the bottom toolbar, click Next and Previous to compare the two available images.

The 2017 image is covered with clouds. This is a case in which the automated cloud detection algorithm is
not functioning well and the image was not recognized as cloudy. You'll skip that image.
 The 2018 image is of excellent quality and contains almost no clouds.

You determine that the image from 2018 is the best one to download.

Note:
It's possible that a new image has been added since this lesson was written that shows a more recent
image of Singapore with low cloud cover. Choose an appropriate, more recent image if it is available.

Download an image
Now that you've chosen an image for your development project, you'll download it.

1. On the bottom toolbar, click Download.

There are various options listed to download the image. You'll choose Level-1 GeoTIFFData Product. A
GeoTIFF Data Product contains coordinate information in the image itself. When added to a GIS application
such as ArcGIS Pro, a Level-1 GeoTIFF data product will automatically be placed in its coordinate location,
ready for analytical use. The GeoTIFF image also contains all 11 Landsat 8 multispectral bands, allowing you
to change how the image looks to emphasize different features on the ground.

2. For Level-1 GeoTIFFData Product, click Download.

 Note:
The download may take several minutes depending on your computer and internet connection.

You've used the GloVis app to search the large database of Landsat multispectral satellite imagery. You also
located and downloaded an image that will be useful raw data for your planning project in Singapore.

Note:
In this lesson, you reviewed Landsat imagery from GloVis, but there are many other satellites you can explore
and use in GloVis and other services. Consider exploring other satellite imagery apps, such as LandsatLook
and EarthExplorer. You can also explore the Copernicus Open Access Hub.

Next, you'll open the image in ArcGIS Pro and change its band combination to show Singapore more clearly.

Prepare the image

Previously, you downloaded an image of Singapore taken by a Landsat satellite. Next, you'll prepare the image for
analytical use. First, you'll extract the image from the zipped file format it was downloaded as. Then, you'll add the
image to a map in ArcGIS Pro and symbolize it by changing its band combination to better show Singapore's
urban features.

Unzip the image

As you could tell from the download time, raw Landsat images have large file sizes. The file size is large partly
because you downloaded a zipped file that contains more than 10 images of the same area, each taken with a
different spectral band. These images can be combined to create a multispectral image. To view the images, you
must unzip the file. You'll also create a folder to store the data.

1. Create a folder named Singapore Data in an easy-to-remember location on your computer, such as your
Documents folder.
2. Locate the downloaded file on your computer.

Note:
 Depending on your web browser, you may have been prompted to choose where the file would be
downloaded to before you began the download. Most browsers download to your computer's
Downloads folder by default.

The file is named by its identification code on the USGS website, which is a long string of letters and
numbers. The file has the extension .tar.gz, which is a type of file that has been compressed twice instead of
once. You'll need to unzip the contents twice to view the images.

3. Right-click the file and extract it to the Singapore Data folder.

Note:
The default process to extract files varies depending on your file compression utility.

4. Locate and open the extracted file.

When extracted only once, the file has the same name, but its extension is .tar instead of .tar.gz. Some file
compression utilities recognize .tar.gz files and automatically extract them twice.

Note:
The .tar file may be inside a folder created by your file compression utilities. Open the folder to find
the .tar file.

5. If necessary, extract the .tar file. Open the extracted folder.

Once fully extracted, the folder contains 12 images (possibly fewer if you downloaded an image from a
different sensor) and two text files.
 Most of the images have the same name as the original file except for the number at the end, such as B1,
B2, and B3. The B stands for band; each image shows a different spectral band of the same image. The
Landsat 8 spectral bands will be discussed in more detail later in the lesson.

6. Double-click the image file that ends with B1 to open it in your computer's default image viewer.

The image is mostly gray, with some visible clouds. Features such as landmasses and oceans are indistinct
and difficult to distinguish. Images of a single spectral band tend to look like this, as they cover only a small
wavelength of light. To make an image that looks like what the human eye sees, multiple spectral bands are
usually combined into a multispectral image.
 7. Close the image.

Open the image in ArcGIS Pro

To combine several individual bands and view them as a single multispectral image, you'll start a new project in
ArcGIS Pro. A project contains databases, toolboxes, styles, and other folders that may be useful when making a
map.

1. Start ArcGIS Pro. If prompted, sign in using your licensed ArcGIS account.

Note:
If you don't have ArcGIS Pro or an ArcGIS account, you can sign up for an ArcGIS free trial.

When you open ArcGIS Pro, you're given the option to create a new project or open an existing one. If
you've created a project before, you'll see a list of recent
projects.

2. Under New, click Map.

The Map template creates a project with a default basemap.

3. In the Create a New Project window, change the project name to Singapore Development.

Tip:
By default, the project is saved to the ArcGIS folder, located in your Documents folder. If you want to
save the project elsewhere, browse to a different location.

4. Click OK.

The project opens and displays a map view.

5. On the ribbon, click the View tab. In the Windows group, click Catalog Pane.

The Catalog pane appears. The Catalog pane contains all the folders, files, and data associated with this
project. You'll use this pane to establish a folder connection to the Singapore Data folder you created
earlier.

6. In the Catalog pane, click the arrow next to Folders to expand it.

The default folder associated with the project is Singapore Development, a folder that was made when you
created the project and that shares the project's name. The folder contains some empty geodatabases and
toolboxes but no actual data.

7. Right-click Folders and choose Add Folder Connection.

The Add Folder Connection window appears, showing a directory of your computer's files.

8. Browse to and select the Singapore Data folder where you extracted your Landsat image.

The Singapore Data folder is added under Folders in the Catalog pane.

9. Expand the Singapore Data folder.

 Tip:
If necessary, to view the file names in full, drag the side of the Catalog pane to widen it until the full
file names are visible.

The folder contains the 11 individual spectral bands, as well as a few other files. The product metadata file
(ending with MTL.txt) contains information on how to combine the spectral bands into a single
multispectral image. You'll use that file to add the multispectral image to the map.

10. Drag the MTL.txt file onto the map.

Note:
If a window appears, asking to build pyramids or statistics for the image, click OK.

The image is added to the map.

 It looks darker than the image you previewed on the GloVis app, but you can change its appearance to
show Singapore more clearly.

Symbolize the image

The image's colors are dark and muted. Additionally, the image has black areas of NoData pixels around the
edges of the image to make the image a square grid. You'll change the active spectral bands in the image to show
the image with more distinct coloring and symbolize the NoData pixels as transparent to make them disappear
from the map.

1. In the Contents pane, right-click the multispectral image and choose Symbology.
The Symbology pane appears. The Primary Symbology section lists the bands used to display the image
(they are also shown in the Contents pane). Only three bands can be shown at a time through the Red,
Green, and Blue image display channels. By default, the Red, Green, and Blue bands are used to show the
image in natural colors. These three bands cover parts of the light spectrum visible to the human eye and
together they approximate how most people would view the landscape. For urban development, a view that
emphasizes features relevant to the city and contrast with vegetated area may be more appropriate. The
following table lists each band and what it shows best:

Number Name What this band shows best

1 Coastal Aerosol Shallow water, fine dust particles

2 Blue Deep water, atmosphere

3 Green Vegetation

4 Red Human-made objects, soil, vegetation

5 Near Infrared Shorelines, vegetation

 Number Name What this band shows best

6 Shortwave Infrared 1 Cloud penetration, soil and vegetation moisture

7 Shortwave Infrared 2 Improved cloud penetration, soil and vegetation moisture

8 Panchromatic Black and white imagery, sharper detail

9 Cirrus Cirrus clouds

10 Thermal Infrared 1 Thermal mapping, estimated soil moisture

11 Thermal Infrared 2 Improved thermal mapping, estimated soil moisture

The Red band would emphasize the human-made objects of Singapore's urban environment, while the
Near Infrared band would emphasize its coastlines and vegetation. The Shortwave Infrared 1 band would
also be useful to highlight vegetation and minimize the appearance of the clouds in the image.

You'll change the three bands displayed through the Red, Green, and Blue channels.

2. In the Symbology pane, set the following parameters:

For Red, choose ShortWaveInfrared_1.
For Green, choose NearInfrared.
For Blue, choose Red.

The image on the map changes automatically.

 The coastlines are much more defined, vegetation appears in bright green, and urban areas appear as
distinct brown clusters. Next, you'll hide the NoData pixels by symbolizing them to be transparent.

3. In the Symbology pane, click the Mask tab and check the Display background value box.

The Mask tab includes options for symbolizing the background, or NoData values. The default color for
NoData pixels is No Color, which is automatically reflected on the map.
4. Close the Symbology pane and zoom to Singapore.

This image gives a good overview of the whole island, with differences between urban and vegetated areas
visible at a glance.

5. On the Quick Access Toolbar, click the Save button to save the project.
 The image is now ready to be examined visually, used as a background to display other data, or used in
further imagery analysis workflows. While urban development projects require far more than only one
image to plan for a city's future, this image provides a good starting point.

Note:
To learn more about imagery analysis, see the Learn ArcGIS lesson Assess hail damage in cornfields
with satellite imagery and other lessons available in the Extracting Information from Imagery section
of the Introduction to Imagery and Remote Sensing curriculum.

In this lesson, you searched the large, 40-year database of imagery captured by Landsat satellites to find one
showing the island of Singapore for a potential urban development project. After identifying the image, you
downloaded it, opened it in ArcGIS Pro, and changed its band combination to better show the city.

Note:
An alternative to downloading imagery to your local computer, as you did in this lesson, is to use an image
service. This method allows you to view and, in many cases, analyze imagery that is hosted in the cloud,
which can save time and disk space on your computer. Explore examples of Esri-hosted image services from
the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World imagery catalog.

To learn more about using a cloud-based image service to access imagery data, see the Learn ArcGIS lesson
Explore dynamic imagery of a volcano eruption.

You can find more lessons in the Learn ArcGIS Lesson

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