Topsat images acquired by the Landmap project from Infoterra are available for selected areas in the following countries and locations: Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Botswana, Cameroon, China, Croatia, Egypt, Farasan Islands, Ghana, Honduras, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Krakatau, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Nile Delta, Palestine, Patagonia, Russia and Santa Cruz Island. Data are available as panchromatic or multispectral, in Tiff, ecw (Enhanced Compression Wavelet) and JPEG formats. Data was collected between November 2007 and August 2009. The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funded Landmap service which ran from 2001 to July 2014 collected and hosted a large amount of earth observation data for the majority of the UK. After removal of JISC funding in 2013, the Landmap service is no longer operational, with the data now held at the NEODC.

TOPSAT is a British Earth observation satellite, launched in October 2005. TOPSAT carries out optical imaging with a ground resolution of 2.5m for panchromatic imagery and 5m for multispectral imagery. TOPSAT was built in the United Kingdom by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, QinetiQ and The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory under the British National Space Centre Mosaic programme.

The TOPSAT imagery is available to all UK academics and students. To apply for access, please

1. Register as a NEODC user. If you already are a NEODC registered user, skip this step. If you have forgotten your NEODC user ID and/or password, please contact the NEODC helpdesk at neodc@rl.ac.uk.
2. Apply for access to the Landmap data. Application involves the agreement with the Landmap terms of use.

Data are available as panchromatic (image-xxxx-pan) or multispectral (image-xxxx-ms), in Tiff, ecw (Enhanced Compression Wavelet) and JPEG formats. Data were collected between November 2007 and August 2009. The data are separated by location.

Tiff files can be opened by most Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Image Processors (IP) such as the freely available Basic ERS & Envisat (A)ATSR and Meris Toolbox (BEAM), and ecw files can be opened in most image viewing/editing software, including open/free software such as Erdas ER viewer. JPEG images can be opened by most basic image viewers.

Software

Basic ERS & Envisat (A) ATSR and Meris Toolbox (BEAM): BEAM is an open-source toolbox and development platform for viewing, analysing and processing of remote sensing raster data. Originally developed to facilitate the utilisation of image data from Envisat's optical instruments, BEAM now supports a growing number of other raster data formats such as GeoTIFF and NetCDF as well as data formats of other Earth Observation (EO) sensors such as Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), AVNIR, Polarised Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (PRISM) and Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS). Various data and algorithms are supported by dedicated extension plug-ins.

Erdas ER viewer, available free of charge, can be used to open raster image formats such as TIFF, GeoTiff, IMG, ECW, ERS, ALG, DAT and many more, and is capable of handling large file sizes.

Links to further information

• The Landmap project TOPSAT website - note the download function of this site and the website itself may be offline after 1st August 2014 due to a withdrawal of JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) funding, see below for an archived version of the site
• An archived version of the Landmap project TOPSAT site, hosted by the Internet Archive project
• The ESA website for TOPSAT
• The website for Infoterra
• The website for Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd
• The website for QinetiQ
• The RAL Space (STFC) site for TOPSAT

If you have queries about these pages or about obtaining the TOPSAT imagery from the NEODC then you should contact the NEODC Support team. Your query should be answered within one working day. When follow-up work is required, the NEODC support team will carry out the work as quickly and efficiently as possible.