How to Download Sentinel Satellite Data for Free

Download Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 Satellite Data
If you want to download Sentinel satellite data, then you’ve come to the right place.


One of the most exciting developments in remote sensing at this time is the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Programme.

Copernicus’ six Sentinel satellites collects comprehensive pictures of our land, ocean, emergency response, atmosphere, security and climate change to understand the health of our planet.

Until very recently, this data has become available to the public at no cost

Today, we show you step-by-step how to download Sentinel satellite data:

Sentinels Scientific Data Hub


In 2014-15, Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2A were successfully launched from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

One Sentinel scene after the other, data has been rolling out on a user interface called the Sentinels Scientific Data Hub.

It’s now available for the public to access.

But you will have to hop through a couple of hoops before you can get your fingers on it.

Follow these steps to download free Sentinel satellite data:

Step 1: Create a User Account
Go to Sentinels Scientific Data Hub.

In the top-right of the webmap, click the SIGN UP button.

Insert valid entries for your name, email and location. Click register. Validate your email.

With a few clicks of the mouse, you’ve gain access to ESA’s Sentinel data.

Step 2: Select Your Area of Interest
Where is your study area?

Using the SEARCH CRITERIA text box in the top-left, type in your area of interest.

In our example, we’ve typed Germany. Click Enter twice.

From here your search will yield results for all the Sentinel satellite data available.

Sentinel-1 (Synthetic Aperture Radar C-Band) swaths are depicted in red. Sentinel-2 (multispectral data) swaths are depicted in green.

Read More: What’s the difference between active and passive sensors?

Step 3: Download Sentinel Data
Now, that we have our user account created with our study area defined – all we have to do is sift through the results and download our chosen Sentinel data.

As we are working with large data sets, you will have to be patient with download speeds. It’s easy for the server to timeout during the download.

Select the product you want to download. S1A is Sentinel-1A. S2A is Sentinel-2A.

Below the product thumbnail that has the download URL. This is what you want to clip in order to download your chosen Sentinel data.



What’s Next?
After you download Sentinel satellite data, chances are that you are going to want to display it in the visible spectrum. This is exactly how our eyes see objects around us.

Each image is separated by their respective spectral band. See our table below for the spectral bands of Sentinel 2. Sentinel 2B will be identical to Sentinel 2A.

If you want to combine the red, green and blue channels as composite bands (such as Google Earth imagery) – read our composite bands tutorial.

…Or maybe you’d like to perform an NDVI analysis in ArcGIS or an image classification.

You now have free satellite data from Sentinel to help you.

What are the Spectral Bands of Sentinel 2A and 2B?
We’ve listed below, the spectral and spatial resolution of Sentinel 2A. There are 13 bands in total. Four spectral bands have a 10 meter resolution. Six bands have a 20 meter resolution. And the remaining 3 have a spatial resolution of 60 meters.

Here are the spectral band details for Sentinel 2A:

Band	Resolution	Central Wavelength	Description
B1	60 m	443 nm	Ultra blue (Coastal and Aerosol)
B2	10 m	490 nm	Blue
B3	10 m	560 nm	Green
B4	10 m	665 nm	Red
B5	20 m	705 nm	Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR)
B6	20 m	740 nm	Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR)
B7	20 m	783 nm	Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR)
B8	10 m	842 nm	Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR)
B8a	20 m	865 nm	Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR)
B9	60 m	940 nm	Short Wave Infrared (SWIR)
B10	60 m	1375 nm	Short Wave Infrared (SWIR)
B11	20 m	1610 nm	Short Wave Infrared (SWIR)
B12	20 m	2190 nm	Short Wave Infrared (SWIR)

Source: SENTINEL-2 Spatial Resolution

Each single satellite revisit time is 10 days. Because there are two satellites (Sentinel 2A and 2B), this means it has a combined constellation revisit of 5 days.

Source: GIS Geography

Earth Observation Industry, International Financial Institutions and Development Agencies

By Riazuddin Kawsar



This post is to address, Earth Observation Information Services as an assisting mechanism to operatively connect Earth Observation Industry, International Financial Institutions and Development Agencies.

International Financial Institutions (IFI) and Development Agencies (DA):
International financial institutions (IFI) (e.g., World Bank (WB)) are providing financial supports and professional advises for development activities and thus ensuring the processes to accelerate development in developing countries in a self-sustained manner. Besides, Development Agencies/Programs (e.g., UN family) are financed through voluntary contributions, also contributing to the comprehensive development of the developing countries.

IFIs and DAs organise and manage their development activities according to sectors (i.e., guided by economic activities) or Themes (i.e., guided by organizational goals/objectives) (e.g., agriculture, debt management) and we, EO professionals, believe Earth Observation (EO) data and information services can play a major role by supporting the management of development activities across sectors and by contextualizing local learning from global experience. IN this context, the particular advantages of EO are EO Information is globally consistent in nature and the availability of historical EO information that can be compared to the current status.

Earth Observation Industry (EOI):
Earth Observation Industry is a combination of commercial/non-commercial Earth Observation data providers (EODP) (e.g., European Space Agency (ESA)) that are dealing with reception, archiving and distribution of Earth Observation (EO) data and Value Adding Earth Observation Companies (VAEOC) that are turning EO data into information and providing EO Information Services.

EO is such an awesome technology that can deal with almost all kind of development activities very efficiently. For an instance, to plan and manage our water resource, we need to know, globally how much fresh water we have. Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), an EO mission made possible to have an idea of how much ground water we have and how much we are extracting every day that was almost impossible to quantify few years back and that’s something remarkable.

Bridging EOI, IFIs and Das:
EOI is not a new entity anymore then again it’s a very new arena; to some it’s “a computer fantasy that can’t be a real tool for serious work”. The Non-EO people, who have considered EO as a possibility, appreciated it very much and from their exemplary experiences, some others are coming forward.

We, being an EO Professionals and as a stakeholder of EOI, are working across disciplines to ensure effective use of EO data by assisting non-EO people to use EO data efficiently. These have always been a vibrant experience and we love to do it again and again until we all in the same page.

Here, it’s worth to mention that EO data providers (i.e., ESA) have been working last couple of years to encourage EO data use among IFIs and supporting Value Adding EO Companies to assist IFIs with Earth Observation Information Services in their development activities. Besides, the commercial EO data providers like Planet Labs are also coming forward to assist humanitarian efforts.

Conclusion
Now, we have EO data providers, EO service providers and EO aware IFIs but still the assimilation process among EOI, IFIs and DAs is not evident and why is that? The noticeable reason can be: 1) the relatively small number of EO professional in IFIs and DAs, limiting the growth of EO usages. 2) EO data can be considered as Big Data as they comes in different formats and they are huge in size that requires special infrastructure and that is discouraging, in some extent. 3) Lack of necessary EO skilled professionals in the job market, which is the pre-requisite for successful EO integration in IFIs and DAs. Last but not the least 4) Lack of EO awareness, globally.

Source

Earth Observation Industry, International Financial Institutions and Development Agencies

By Riazuddin Kawsar


This post is to address, Earth Observation Information Services as an assisting mechanism to operatively connect Earth Observation Industry, International Financial Institutions and Development Agencies.

International Financial Institutions (IFI) and Development Agencies (DA):

International financial institutions (IFI) (e.g., World Bank (WB)) are providing financial supports and professional advises for development activities and thus ensuring the processes to accelerate development in developing countries in a self-sustained manner. Besides, Development Agencies/Programs (e.g., UN family) are financed through voluntary contributions, also contributing to the comprehensive development of the developing countries.

IFIs and DAs organise and manage their development activities according to sectors (i.e., guided by economic activities) or Themes (i.e., guided by organizational goals/objectives) (e.g., agriculture, debt management) and we, EO professionals, believe Earth Observation (EO) data and information services can play a major role by supporting the management of development activities across sectors and by contextualizing local learning from global experience. IN this context, the particular advantages of EO are EO Information is globally consistent in nature and the availability of historical EO information that can be compared to the current status.

Earth Observation Industry (EOI):
Earth Observation Industry is a combination of commercial/non-commercial Earth Observation data providers (EODP) (e.g., European Space Agency (ESA)) that are dealing with reception, archiving and distribution of Earth Observation (EO) data and Value Adding Earth Observation Companies (VAEOC) that are turning EO data into information and providing EO Information Services.

EO is such an awesome technology that can deal with almost all kind of development activities very efficiently. For an instance, to plan and manage our water resource, we need to know, globally how much fresh water we have. Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), an EO mission made possible to have an idea of how much ground water we have and how much we are extracting every day that was almost impossible to quantify few years back and that’s something remarkable.

Bridging EOI, IFIs and Das:
EOI is not a new entity anymore then again it’s a very new arena; to some it’s “a computer fantasy that can’t be a real tool for serious work”. The Non-EO people, who have considered EO as a possibility, appreciated it very much and from their exemplary experiences, some others are coming forward.

We, being an EO Professionals and as a stakeholder of EOI, are working across disciplines to ensure effective use of EO data by assisting non-EO people to use EO data efficiently. These have always been a vibrant experience and we love to do it again and again until we all in the same page.

Here, it’s worth to mention that EO data providers (i.e., ESA) have been working last couple of years to encourage EO data use among IFIs and supporting Value Adding EO Companies to assist IFIs with Earth Observation Information Services in their development activities. Besides, the commercial EO data providers like Planet Labs are also coming forward to assist humanitarian efforts.

Conclusion
Now, we have EO data providers, EO service providers and EO aware IFIs but still the assimilation process among EOI, IFIs and DAs is not evident and why is that? The noticeable reason can be: 1) the relatively small number of EO professional in IFIs and DAs, limiting the growth of EO usages. 2) EO data can be considered as Big Data as they comes in different formats and they are huge in size that requires special infrastructure and that is discouraging, in some extent. 3) Lack of necessary EO skilled professionals in the job market, which is the pre-requisite for successful EO integration in IFIs and DAs. Last but not the least 4) Lack of EO awareness, globally.

Source

The EnMAP Spaceborne Imaging Spectroscopy Mission for Earth Observation

Journal Article by: Luis Guanter, Hermann Kaufmann, Karl Segl, Saskia Foerster, Christian Rogass, Sabine Chabrillat, Theres Kuester, André Hollstein, Godela Rossner, Christian Chlebek, Christoph Straif, Sebastian Fischer, Stefanie Schrader, Tobias Storch, Uta Heiden, Andreas Mueller, Martin Bachmann, Helmut Mühle, Rupert Müller, Martin Habermeyer, Andreas Ohndorf, Joachim Hill, Henning Buddenbaum, Patrick Hostert, Sebastian van der Linden, Pedro J. Leitão, Andreas Rabe, Roland Doerffer, Hajo Krasemann, Hongyan Xi, Wolfram Mauser, Tobias Hank, Matthias Locherer, Michael Rast, Karl Staenz and Bernhard Sang

Abstract

Imaging spectroscopy, also known as hyperspectral remote sensing, is based on the characterization of Earth surface materials and processes through spectrally-resolved measurements of the light interacting with matter. The potential of imaging spectroscopy for Earth remote sensing has been demonstrated since the 1980s. However, most of the developments and applications in imaging spectroscopy have largely relied on airborne spectrometers, as the amount and quality of space-based imaging spectroscopy data remain relatively low to date. The upcoming Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) German imaging spectroscopy mission is intended to fill this gap. An overview of the main characteristics and current status of the mission is provided in this contribution. The core payload of EnMAP consists of a dual-spectrometer instrument measuring in the optical spectral range between 420 and 2450 nm with a spectral sampling distance varying between 5 and 12 nm and a reference signal-to-noise ratio of 400:1 in the visible and near-infrared and 180:1 in the shortwave-infrared parts of the spectrum. EnMAP images will cover a 30 km-wide area in the across-track direction with a ground sampling distance of 30 m. An across-track tilted observation capability will enable a target revisit time of up to four days at the Equator and better at high latitudes. EnMAP will contribute to the development and exploitation of spaceborne imaging spectroscopy applications by making high-quality data freely available to scientific users worldwide.

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

For full text, follow the link here.