LBA-ECO LC-10: Cloud-Free Landsat TM Scenes for the Legal Amazon

Landsat Thematic Mapper scenes provide a single, best-available cloud-free image for each spatial tile across the Legal Amazon region. These band-sequential files and associated database records cover an eight-year period from September 1986 to September 1994. The dataset was compiled by NASA as part of the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA-ECO).

Use Cases

• Establishing historical land-cover baselines based on the most cloud-free retrievals per tile.
• Analyzing deforestation patterns and rates using the 1986-1994 time series.
• Training land-use classification models with calibrated Landsat TM imagery.
• Conducting change detection studies for the Amazon region over an eight-year period.

Strengths

• Provides pre-selected, best-available cloud-free imagery for each tile, reducing preprocessing burden.
• Covers a significant eight-year time range (1986-1994) for longitudinal study.
• Originates from a authoritative source (NASA) for a major scientific experiment (LBA-ECO).

Limitations

• Metadata is sparse; specific column names, row counts, and image dimensions are not provided.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (1994 vs. 2026) create uncertainty about metadata maintenance.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Compiled from Landsat TM satellite imagery, selecting the most cloud-free retrieval per spatial tile.

Time Range

1986-09 21 to 1994-09-17

Freshness

Last updated dates conflict: one source states 1994-09-17, another states 2026-04-10.

Geography

Legal Amazon region