Landsat images with bad quality

Question

I downloaded several Landsat images from some years between 1985 and 2014, all of them with good quality. Nevertheless the period from 2003 to 2013 is not worth it. I checked all images. Most of the images have black strips or color distortions.

Checking on the EarthExplorer page I get the same result. Is there something wrong with that period of detection, do I just have bad luck with my area, or am I doing something wrong?

Answer 1

The Scan Line Corrector in the ETM+ instrument onboard Landsat-7 suffered a (suspected) mechanical failure in 2003, so all subsequent images suffer from the striping you are seeing in your images. The Wikipedia page for the satellite has a good explanation.

Destriping Landsat Images? addresses methods for de-striping the imagery, however, note that it is often not worth the effort.