As part of the Copernicus programme of the European Commission (EC), the European Space Agency (ESA) has developed and is currently operating the Sentinel-2 mission that is acquiring high spatial resolution optical imagery. This article provides a description of the calibration activities and the status of the mission products validation activities after one year in orbit. Measured performances, from the validation activities, cover both Top-Of-Atmosphere (TOA) and Bottom-Of-Atmosphere (BOA) products. The presented results 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.

The Atmospheric Correction Inter-comparison eXercise (ACIX) is an international initiative with the aim to analyse the Surface Reflectance (SR) products of various state-of-the-art atmospheric correction (AC) processors. The Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) and Water Vapour (WV) are also examined in ACIX as additional outputs of AC processing. In this paper, the general ACIX framework is discussed; special mention is made of the motivation to initiate the experiment, the inter-comparison protocol, and the principal results. ACIX is free and open and every developer was welcome to participate. Eventually, 12 participants applied their approaches to various Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 image datasets acquired over sites around the world. The current results diverge depending on the sensors, products, and sites, indicating their strengths and weaknesses. Indeed, this first implementation of processor inter-comparison was proven to be a good lesson for the developers to learn the advantages and limitations of their approaches. Various algorithm improvements are expected, if not already implemented, and the enhanced performances are yet to be assessed in future ACIX experiments.

Satellite remote sensing may assist in meeting the needs of lake monitoring. In this study, we aim to evaluate the potential of Sentinel-2 to assess and monitor water constituents and bottom characteristics of lakes at spatio-temporal synoptic scales. In a field campaign at Lake Starnberg, Germany, we collected validation data concurrently to a Sentinel-2A (S2-A) overpass. We compared the results of three different atmospheric corrections, i.e., Sen2Cor, ACOLITE and MIP, with in situ reflectance measurements, whereof MIP performed best (r = 0.987, RMSE = 0.002 sr⁻¹). Using the bio-optical modelling tool WASI-2D, we retrieved absorption by coloured dissolved organic matter (a_CDOM(440)), backscattering and concentration of suspended particulate matter (SPM) in optically deep water; water depths, bottom substrates and a_CDOM(440) were modelled in optically shallow water. In deep water, SPM and a_CDOM(440) showed reasonable spatial patterns. Comparisons with in situ data (mean: 0.43 m⁻¹) showed an underestimation of S2-A derived a_CDOM(440) (mean: 0.14 m⁻¹); S2-A backscattering of SPM was slightly higher than backscattering from in situ data (mean: 0.027 m⁻¹ vs. 0.019 m⁻¹). Chlorophyll-a concentrations (~1 mg·m⁻³) of the lake were too low for a retrieval. In shallow water, retrieved water depths exhibited a high correlation with echo sounding data (r = 0.95, residual standard deviation = 0.12 m) up to 2.5 m (Secchi disk depth: 4.2 m), though water depths were slightly underestimated (RMSE = 0.56 m). In deeper water, Sentinel-2A bands were incapable of allowing a WASI-2D based separation of macrophytes and sediment which led to erroneous water depths. Overall, the results encourage further research on lakes with varying optical properties and trophic states with Sentinel-2A.

Masking of clouds, cloud shadow, water and snow/ice in optical satellite imagery is an important step in automated processing chains. We compare the performance of the masking provided by Fmask (“Function of mask” implemented in FORCE), ATCOR (“Atmospheric Correction”) and Sen2Cor (“Sentinel-2 Correction”) on a set of 20 Sentinel-2 scenes distributed over the globe covering a wide variety of environments and climates. All three methods use rules based on physical properties (Top of Atmosphere Reflectance, TOA) to separate clear pixels from potential cloud pixels, but they use different rules and class-specific thresholds. The methods can yield different results because of different definitions of the dilation buffer size for the classes cloud, cloud shadow and snow. Classification results are compared to the assessment of an expert human interpreter using at least 50 polygons per class randomly selected for each image. The class assignment of the human interpreter is considered as reference or “truth”. The interpreter carefully assigned a class label based on the visual assessment of the true color and infrared false color images and additionally on the bottom of atmosphere (BOA) reflectance spectra. The most important part of the comparison is done for the difference area of the three classifications considered. This is the part of the classification images where the results of Fmask, ATCOR and Sen2Cor disagree. Results on difference area have the advantage to show more clearly the strengths and weaknesses of a classification than results on the complete image. The overall accuracy of Fmask, ATCOR, and Sen2Cor for difference areas of the selected scenes is 45%, 56%, and 62%, respectively. User and producer accuracies are strongly class- and scene-dependent, typically varying between 30% and 90%. Comparison of the difference area is complemented by looking for the results in the area where all three classifications give the same result. Overall accuracy for that “same area” is 97% resulting in the complete classification in overall accuracy of 89%, 91% and 92% for Fmask, ATCOR and Sen2Cor respectively.

The atmospheric correction of satellite images based on radiative transfer calculations is a prerequisite for many remote sensing applications. The software package ATCOR, developed at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), is a versatile atmospheric correction software, capable of processing data acquired by many different optical satellite sensors. Based on this well established algorithm, a new Python-based atmospheric correction software has been developed to generate L2A products of Sentinel-2, Landsat-8, and of new space-based hyperspectral sensors such as DESIS (DLR Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer) and EnMAP (Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program). This paper outlines the underlying algorithms of PACO, and presents the validation results by comparing L2A products generated from Sentinel-2 L1C images with in situ (AERONET and RadCalNet) data within VNIR-SWIR spectral wavelengths range.

Satellite Earth Observation (EO) sensors are becoming a vital source of information for land surface monitoring. The concept of the Virtual Constellation (VC) is gaining interest within the science community owing to the increasing number of satellites/sensors in operation with similar characteristics. The establishment of a VC out of individual missions offers new possibilities for many application domains, in particular in the fields of land surface monitoring and change detection. In this context, this paper describes the Copernicus Sen2Like algorithms and software, a solution for harmonizing and fusing Landsat 8/Landsat 9 data with Sentinel-2 data. Developed under the European Union Copernicus Program, the Sen2Like software processes a large collection of Level 1/Level 2A products and generates high quality Level 2 Analysis Ready Data (ARD) as part of harmonized (Level 2H) and/or fused (Level 2F) products providing high temporal resolutions. For this purpose, we have re-used and developed a broad spectrum of data processing and analysis methodologies, including geometric and spectral co-registration, atmospheric and Bi-Directional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) corrections and upscaling to 10 m for relevant Landsat bands. The Sen2Like software and the algorithms have been developed within a VC establishment framework, and the tool can conveniently be used to compare processing algorithms in combinations. It also has the potential to integrate new missions from spaceborne and airborne platforms including unmanned aerial vehicles. The validation activities show that the proposed approach improves the temporal consistency of the multi temporal data stack, and output products are interoperable with the subsequent thematic analysis processes.