{"id":120151,"date":"2013-07-24T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-24T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/uncategorized\/band-combinations-for-landsat-8\/"},"modified":"2019-11-25T10:00:09","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T18:00:09","slug":"band-combinations-for-landsat-8","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/imagery\/band-combinations-for-landsat-8","title":{"rendered":"Band Combinations for Landsat 8"},"author":6071,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[22931],"tags":[23011],"industry":[],"product":[],"class_list":["post-120151","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-imagery","tag-raster"],"acf":{"short_description":"Landsat 8 has been online for a couple of months now, and the images look incredible. While all of the bands from previous Landsat missio...","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Landsat 8 has been online for a couple of months now, and the images look incredible. While all of the bands from previous Landsat missions are still incorporated, there are a couple of new ones, such as the coastal blue band water penetration\/aerosol detection and the cirrus cloud band for cloud masking and other applications. Here\u2019s a rundown of some common band combinations applied to Landsat 8, displayed as a red, green, blue (RGB):<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Natural Color<\/td>\n4 3 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
False Color (urban)<\/td>\n7 6 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Color Infrared (vegetation)<\/td>\n5 4 3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Agriculture<\/td>\n6 5 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Atmospheric Penetration<\/td>\n7 6 5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Healthy Vegetation<\/td>\n5 6 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Land\/Water<\/td>\n5 6 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Natural With Atmospheric Removal<\/td>\n7 5 3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Shortwave Infrared<\/td>\n7 5 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vegetation Analysis<\/td>\n6 5 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Here\u2019s how the new bands from Landsat 8 line up with Landsat 7:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Landsat 7<\/strong><\/td>\nLandsat 8<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Band Name<\/span><\/td>\nBandwidth (\u00b5m)<\/span><\/td>\nResolution (m)<\/span><\/td>\nBand Name<\/span><\/td>\nBandwidth (\u00b5m)<\/span><\/td>\nResolution (m)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nBand 1 Coastal<\/td>\n0.43 – 0.45<\/td>\n30<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Band 1 Blue<\/td>\n0.45 – 0.52<\/td>\n30<\/td>\nBand 2 Blue<\/td>\n0.45 – 0.51<\/td>\n30<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Band 2 Green<\/td>\n0.52 – 0.60<\/td>\n30<\/td>\nBand 3 Green<\/td>\n0.53 – 0.59<\/td>\n30<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Band 3 Red<\/td>\n0.63 – 0.69<\/td>\n30<\/td>\nBand 4 Red<\/td>\n0.64 – 0.67<\/td>\n30<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Band 4 NIR<\/td>\n0.77 – 0.90<\/td>\n30<\/td>\nBand 5 NIR<\/td>\n0.85 – 0.88<\/td>\n30<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Band 5 SWIR 1<\/td>\n1.55 – 1.75<\/td>\n30<\/td>\nBand 6 SWIR 1<\/td>\n1.57 – 1.65<\/td>\n30<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Band 7 SWIR 2<\/td>\n2.09 – 2.35<\/td>\n30<\/td>\nBand 7 SWIR 2<\/td>\n2.11 – 2.29<\/td>\n30<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Band 8 Pan<\/td>\n0.52 – 0.90<\/td>\n15<\/td>\nBand 8 Pan<\/td>\n0.50 – 0.68<\/td>\n15<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nBand 9 Cirrus<\/td>\n1.36 – 1.38<\/td>\n30<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Band 6 TIR<\/td>\n10.40 – 12.50<\/td>\n30\/60<\/td>\nBand 10 TIRS 1<\/td>\n10.6 – 11.19<\/td>\n100<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Band 11 TIRS 2<\/td>\n11.5 – 12.51<\/td>\n100<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

For the most part, the bands line up with what we\u2019re used to, with some minor tweaking of the spectral ranges. The thermal infrared band from Landsat 7 is now split into two bands for Landsat 8. Whereas before you had one thermal band that was acquired at 60 m resolution (and resampled to 30 m) now you have increased spectral resolution at the cost of spatial resolution. It wouldn\u2019t be remote sensing without tradeoffs, right?<\/p>\n"}],"authors":[{"ID":6071,"user_firstname":"","user_lastname":"","nickname":"kevin_butler","user_nicename":"kevin_butler","display_name":"kevin_butler","user_email":"kevin_butler@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2018-03-02 00:17:54","user_description":"","user_avatar":""}],"related_articles":"","card_image":false,"wide_image":false},"yoast_head":"\nBand Combinations for Landsat 8<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/imagery\/band-combinations-for-landsat-8\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Band Combinations for Landsat 8\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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