Downloading & Prepping GLoVis Data | Page 1

Downloading Data from USGS GloVis or

EarthExplorer
To be able to download data from either site you must first register and create an account. Both sites
use the same account information. To register and create an account go here:
https://edcsns17.cr.usgs.gov/NewEarthExplorer/register/ You want to make sure you are logged in
prior to starting your search on GLOVIS as it will not let you download unless you are logged in.
GloVis products: http://glovis.usgs.gov/AboutBrowse.shtml
EarthExplorer products: http://edcsns17.cr.usgs.gov/NewEarthExplorer/help/productinfo
Downloading from GloVis
1. Login in first:
https://edcsns17.cr.usgs.gov/NewEarthExplorer/login/index?RET_ADDR=http://edcsns17.cr.usg
s.gov/NewEarthExplorer/
2. Open new window and navigate to GloVis website: http://glovis.usgs.gov/
3. Click on your approximate area on the map or enter in a latitude and longitude coordinate
4. Make sure you allow pop ups
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Figure 1. GloVis Viewer
5. Set the collection you would like to download from using the Collection menu (A in Figure 1)
6. Set the maximum allowable cloud cover for your images (B in Figure 1)
7. Click on an area of interest, the most recent scene information will show in Scene Information
(C in Figure 1)
8. Click on Prev Scene (D) to see the previous scene that matches your data collection choice as
well as cloud cover setting
9. You can right click on a scene to find out the Scene ID, open metadata and more (Figure 2)
A



B
C
D
E


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Figure 2. Scene options available by right clicking on the scene.
10. To select the scene for download either Right Click and select Add to Scene List or Click Add (E
in Figure 1)
11. Once you have selected all the scenes you would like to download from a single collection click
Send to Cart (Figure 3)

Figure 3. Example Scene list
12. A message will pop up telling you that Scenes in your Scene List may be added to the Orders
areas of your Shopping Cart, the Downloads area, or both, depending on the scenes status.
Click OK.
13. Another message may pop up telling you the data is available As IS. Click Yes.
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14. Another webpage will open showing your Shopping cart (Figure 4)

Figure 4. Shopping Cart
15. If you selected scenes are available for immediate download they will be listed under
downloads.
16. To download a scene click on the Download icon
17. A Download Options message will open (Figure 5). To download all 7 bands, select Level 1
Product and click Select Download Option

Figure 5. Download options pop-up message.
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18. A Download Scene message will open (Figure 6). Once you have read the message click
Download.

Figure 6. Download scene pop-up message.
19. A File Download box will open. Click Save to download and save the file.
Preparing the Data for Use
1. The data that has been downloaded will be named similar to LT50140342009221EDC00.tar.gz.
The file is doubled zipped, .tar and .gz are both compression methods. You will have to
unzip the file twice.
2. .gz and .tar files cannot be unzipped using the standard Extract All wizard in Windows OS.
You need to download (http://www.7-zip.org/) and install 7-Zip.
3. Start 7-zip File Manager (Figure 7). And browse to the download location. Select the file ending
with .tar.gz that you would like to work with and Click Extract.
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Figure 7. 7-Zip file manager.
4. The Extract window will open (Figure 8). Click the Browse button (A) and specify where you
want the file extracted to and click OK.

Figure 8. Extract window.
5. Next unzip the .tar file which resulted from the 1
st
extraction.
6. Once you have unzipped the .tar file you should now have 10 files. 7 .TIF files (1 for each
band of the image), 2 text files (1 about ground control points, the other metadata), and the last
is a .gtf file (ASCII file which can be opened with WordPad and gives product details).
7. You will now need to stack 6 of the 7 bands creating 1 resulting image.
8. You will need to use the Composite Bands tool in ArcToolbox. The Composite Bands tool is
located in ArcToolbox > Data Management Tools > Raster > Raster Processing.
9. Open the Composite Bands tool (Figure 9) and load bands 1 through 5 and band 7 (band 6 is
thermal) of a single landsat scene, they will have all the same name with B10 to B70 at the end
of the file name. Name the output appropriately and click OK.
A
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Figure 9. Composite Bands tool in ArcToolbox.