
DIST Product Suite
The land Surface Disturbance product (DIST) maps vegetation disturbance detected when vegetation cover decreases or spectral variation is outside a historical norm from the Harmonized Landsat-8/9 Sentinel-2 A/B (HLS) scenes. Two DIST products are generated within the DIST product suite: a) the DIST-ALERT product capturing vegetation disturbance at the cadence of HLS sampling and b) the DIST-ANN product capturing the confirmed changes of the DIST-ALERT products from previous calendar year. The products are designed to share the same structure, GeoTiff file format, file-naming convention, and have posting of 30 m. All products are accessible through the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC).
Below we provide product specification documentation as well as the corresponding product samples conforming to the detailed specifications. Interactive guides are provided demonstrating how products can be loaded and manipulated in an open-source GIS package. Interactive white papers provided through a Jupyter notebook environment outline product introductions and showcase select applications.
DIST from Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS)

DIST Product Specification Document
This document describes the specifications of the OPERA Level-3 Disturbance product (DIST) product that uses Harmonized Landsat-8/9 Sentinel-2A/B (HLS) as the primary image-based inputs. The data product comes in two variants according to their temporal scope, and are thus referenced by the short names DIST-ALERT (at the cadence of HLS imagery) and DIST-ANN (a summary of DIST-ALERT over the previous year).

Products
Access the latest release of provisional products through the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC). Note that sample products shared further below are older, legacy versions.

Legacy Sample Product Example #1
The Hermit’s Peak Fire in the Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico, USA, that began April 6, 2022, and is considered active, but ~98% contained as of August 3, 2022 with ~1382 km² burned. Below is a DIST-ALERT provisional product derived from a Sentinel-2A acquisition on May 28, 2022, when the fire had only been ~48% contained.

Legacy Sample Product Example #2
The McKinney Fire in the Klamath National Forest, Siskiyou County, California, USA, began on July 29, 2022. As of September 7, 2022, the fire was 100% contained out of the reported ~244 km² (60,138 acres) burned area. Below is a DIST-ALERT provisional product derived from a Sentinel-2A acquisition on August 15, 2022, when the fire had only been ~95% contained.
Interactive Guides

Visualization Guide
Refer to the following visualization guide, which illustrates how users can manipulate products in the open-source QGIS software.
Jupyter Notebook Guides
Guides below are written in Jupyter notebook environment outline and are intended to outline product introductions and showcase select applications.
- Product Overview
Basic overview of the DIST product and visualization of raster layers
Product Overview
- Wildfire Application
How to use DIST for wildfire applications
Wildfire Application
To contact us or give feedback: opera.sep@jpl.nasa.gov
CL#21-6388