OPERA DIST-ALERT-HLS: Global Land Surface Disturbance Alerts

NASA's OPERA Land Surface Disturbance Alert product (Version 1) maps vegetation and generic disturbance alerts at 30-meter spatial resolution. It is derived from harmonized data collected by Landsat 8/9 and Sentinel-2A/B/C satellites, providing high temporal frequency for detecting land changes. The product contains 19 layers in Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF format, including disturbance status, confidence, date, and vegetation cover metrics.

Use Cases

• Detecting deforestation and logging activities based on the vegetation disturbance status and date of disturbance layers.
• Monitoring long-term land change trends using the historical percent vegetation cover and days of ongoing anomalies metrics.
• Assessing disturbance event confidence for validation studies using the provided disturbance confidence layer.
• Mapping fire scars or other non-vegetation disturbances based on the auxiliary generic disturbance information.

Strengths

• Combines data from five satellite sensors (Landsat 8, 9, Sentinel-2A, 2B, 2C) for high temporal frequency observations.
• Provides 19 distinct data layers, including specific metrics like date of disturbance and disturbance confidence.
• Offers a fine spatial resolution of 30 meters for detailed land change analysis.

Limitations

• Key metadata like row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all platforms.
• License information conflicts between sources (CC-BY-4.0 vs. 'other-license-specified'), requiring user verification.
• The dataset description references 'additional usage constraints' in an external document, which must be consulted.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Derived from harmonized analysis of Landsat and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery.

Time Range

2020-2025

Freshness

2026-04-09 23:15:27.504551

Geography

Global