The TimeScan product is based on the fully-automated analysis of comprehensive time-series acquisitions of Landsat data. Based on a user-specified definition of the required period of time, the region of interest and – optionally – the maximum cloud cover, the TimeScan processor starts with the collection of all available Landsat scenes that meet the user specification. Next, for each single scene masking of clouds, haze and shadow is conducted using the Fmask algorithm. Then, a total of 6 indices is calculated for those pixels of each single scene that have not been masked in the prior step. The set of indices includes the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the Built-up Index (BI), the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI), the Normalized Difference Band-5 / Band-7 (ND57), the Normalized Difference Band-4 / Band-3 (ND43), and the Normalized Difference Band-3 / Band-2 (ND32). Finally, the TimeScan product is generated by calculating the temporal statistics (minimum, maximum, mean, standard deviation, mean slope) for each index over the defined period of time. Hence, in case of the defined 6 indices chosen, the TimeScan product will include a total of 30 bands (5 statistical features per index). As an additional band a quality layer is added which shows for each pixel the number of valid values (meaning times with no cloud/haze or shadow cover) that have been included in the statistics calculation.
