Copernicus Sentinel-2 Calibration and Products Validation Status

Abstract

As part of the Copernicus programme of the European Union (EU), the European Space Agency (ESA) has developed and is currently operating the Sentinel-2 mission that is acquiring high spatial resolution optical imagery. This paper provides a description of the calibration activities and the current status of the mission products validation activities. Measured performances, from the validation activities, cover both Top-Of-Atmosphere (TOA) and Bottom-Of-Atmosphere (BOA) products. Results presented in this paper show the good quality of the mission products both in terms of radiometry and geometry and provide an overview on next mission steps related to data quality aspects.

Development and Implementation of an Electronic Crosstalk Correction for Bands 27–30 in Terra MODIS Collection 6

“…Electronic crosstalk is a problem that occurs in many space-based imaging instruments [15][16][17]. In the case of Sentinel-2, the crosstalk contamination was characterized using ground-based measurements before launch [15].…”

“…In the case of Sentinel-2, the crosstalk contamination was characterized using ground-based measurements before launch [15]. By directly illuminating individual bands on the instrument, the impact of electronic crosstalk can be measured on each of the affected bands, and correction coefficients can be derived to use during the mission.…”

Landsat 15-m Panchromatic-Assisted Downscaling (LPAD) of the 30-m Reflective Wavelength Bands to Sentinel-2 20-m Resolution

“…For example, recent research suggests that the integration of the Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 data would be beneficial for applications including agricultural mapping and monitoring [5][6][7], phenological studies [8], and glacier extent mapping [9]. There are a number of pre-processing issues that need to be addressed before the well calibrated Landsat-8 [10,11] and Sentinel-2A [2,12] data can be used together or treated as effectively being sensed from the same sensor. These include handling the different sensor spectral response functions and correction for atmospheric effects [13,14], correction of surface reflectance anisotropy [15,16], and handling image tiling and geolocation differences [17][18][19].…”

10m Sentinel-2A Cloud-Free Composite – Southern Africa 2016

“…The S2A mission offers an unprecedented combination of systematic global coverage of land coastal areas, a high revisit under the same viewing conditions, high spatial resolution, and a wide field-of-view (FOV) for multispectral observations from 13 bands in the visible, near infrared and short wave infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum [1].…”