In the frame of the Copernicus program, ESA launched the Copernicus Sentinel- 2 optical imaging satellites, which are fully operational since June 2017. Sentinel-2C- and -2D satellites will be launched following Sentinel-2A and -2B units with identical sensors.
This paper reports on a sensitivity analysis of Sentinel-2 atmospheric correction / cloud masking vs Signal-to Noise Ratio (SNR) in specific spectral bands. Some Sentinel-2 L1C products are selected to study this effect. Noisy products are simulated adding noise to original L1C-data applying different Gaussian noise models. Finally, both original and noisy L1C-products are processed with Level-2A processor Sen2Cor and resulting L2A-products are compared. Results showed, that added noise to B10 is most critical due to performance reduction of cloud masking. Added noise to B01 is less critical because it does not lead to systematic changes of average surface reflectance. It results in increased scatter of surface reflectance. Added noise to B09 is found to be uncritical because the impact on water vapor retrieval is within uncertainty of validation method.
The Sentinel-2 (S-2) mission is part of the Copernicus Space Component (CSC) – the European Commission’s Earth Observation program. It is designed to provide systematic global acquisitions of land and coastal areas at high-spectral resolution and with high revisit frequency, generating products feeding a large range of operational applications in domains such as agriculture, ecosystems management, natural disaster monitoring or water quality monitoring.
The mission is currently in its operational phase with a constellation of two satellites (Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B) launched in 2015 and 2017 respectively, each designed for a minimum lifetime of 7.25 years with consumables sized for 12 years. In order to provide a long-term service (up to 20-year of overall mission duration), two additional satellites Sentinel-2C and Sentinel-2D were funded by the European Commission and are presently under development.
The main S-2 payload, the Multi Spectral Instrument (MSI), is a push broom instrument with 13 spectral bands covering from the visible and the near infrared (VNIR) to the short wave infrared (SWIR). Operational experience from S-2 A&B, with new applications raising up, demonstrates how crucial and valuable accurate instrument spectral characterization is becoming. In the frame of S-2 C&D development, an enhanced spectral characterization method was implemented in order to address all the pixels of the Field Of View (FOV) on all the bands of the instrument with high precision, accuracy and sampling.
This paper describes this novel approach as well as the test setup used to characterize both VNIR channels operated at ambient pressure and SWIR channels operated at low temperature in vacuum conditions. The results of the spectral response of the thirteen bands obtained during the MSI-C test campaign executed between 2019 and 2020 and their associated accuracy are presented. Finally, the impact of spectral response variation on typical targets and the added value for the users from the accurate knowledge of the spectral response is addressed.
Sentinel-2 is an Earth Observation mission developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) in the frame of the Copernicus program of the European Commission. The mission is based on a constellation of 2-satellites: Sentinel-2A launched in June 2015 and Sentinel-2B launched in March 2017. It offers an unprecedented combination of systematic global coverage of land and coastal areas, a high revisit of five days at the equator and 2 days at mid-latitudes under the same viewing conditions, high spatial resolution, and a wide field of view for multispectral observations from 13 bands in the visible, near infrared and short wave infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The mission performances are routinely and closely monitored by the S2 Mission Performance Centre (MPC), including a consortium of Expert Support Laboratories (ESL). This publication focuses on the Sentinel-2 Level-1 product quality validation activities performed by the MPC. It presents an up-to-date status of the Level-1 mission performances at the beginning of the constellation routine phase. Level-1 performance validations routinely performed cover Level-1 Radiometric Validation (Equalisation Validation, Absolute Radiometry Vicarious Validation, Absolute Radiometry Cross-Mission Validation, Multi-temporal Relative Radiometry Vicarious Validation and SNR Validation), and Level-1 Geometric Validation (Geolocation Uncertainty Validation, Multi-spectral Registration Uncertainty Validation and Multi-temporal Registration Uncertainty Validation). Overall, the Sentinel-2 mission is proving very successful in terms of product quality thereby fulfilling the promises of the Copernicus program.
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