SENTINEL2 -- Sentinel-2 Products

Driver short name

SENTINEL2

Driver built-in by default

This driver is built-in by default, but requires a JPEG2000 capable driver to read the imagery

Driver for Sentinel-2 Level-1B, Level-1C and Level-2A products. Starting with GDAL 2.1.3, Level-1C with "Safe Compact" encoding are also supported.

The SENTINEL2 driver will be used if the main metadata .xml file at the root of a SENTINEL2 data product is opened (whose name is typically S2A_OPER_MTD_SAFL1C_....xml). It can also accept directly .zip files downloaded from the Sentinels Scientific Data Hub

To be able to read the imagery, GDAL must be configured with at least one of the JPEG2000 capable drivers.

SENTINEL-2 data are acquired on 13 spectral bands in the visible and near-infrared (VNIR) and Short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) spectrum, as show in the below table:

Band name

Resolution (m)

Central wavelength (nm)

Band width (nm)

Purpose

B01

60

443

20

Aerosol detection

B02

10

490

65

Blue

B03

10

560

35

Green

B04

10

665

30

Red

B05

20

705

15

Vegetation classification

B06

20

740

15

Vegetation classification

B07

20

783

20

Vegetation classification

B08

10

842

115

Near infrared

B08A

20

865

20

Vegetation classification

B09

60

945

20

Water vapour

B10

60

1375

30

Cirrus

B11

20

1610

90

Snow / ice / cloud discrimination

B12

20

2190

180

Snow / ice / cloud discrimination

Driver capabilities

Supports Georeferencing

This driver supports georeferencing

Supports VirtualIO

This driver supports virtual I/O operations (/vsimem/, etc.)

Level-1B

Level-1B products are composed of several "granules" of ~ 25 km across-track x ~ 23km along-track, in sensor geometry (i.e. non ortho-rectified). Each granule correspond to the imagery captured by one of the 12 detectors across-track (for a total 290 km swath width). The imagery of each band is put in a separate JPEG2000 file.

Level-1B products are aimed at advanced users.

When opening the main metadata .xml file, the driver will typically expose N * 3 sub-datasets, where N is the number of granules composing the user product, and 3 corresponds to the number of spatial resolutions. There's one for the 4 10m bands, one for the 6 20m bands and one for the 3 60m bands. Caution: the number of such subdatasets can be typically of several hundreds or more.

It is also possible to open the metadata .xml of a given granule, in which case 3 subdatasets will be reported for each of the 3 spatial resolutions.

When opening a subdataset, the georeferencing is made of 5 ground control points for the 4 corner of the images and the center of image.

Level-1C

Level-1C products are organized in ortho-rectified tiles of 100 km x 100 km in UTM WGS84 projections. The imagery of each band is put in a separate JPEG2000 file.

When opening the main metadata .xml file, the driver will typically expose 4 sub-datasets:

  • one for the 4 10m bands,

  • one for the 6 20m bands,

  • one for the 3 60m bands and,

  • one for a preview of the R,G,B bands at a 320m resolution

All tiles of same resolution and projection are mosaiced together. If a product spans over several UTM zones, they will be exposed as separate subdatasets.

It is also possible to open the metadata .xml file of each tile (only for original L1C encoding, not supported on "Safe Compact" encoding), in which case the driver will typically expose the 4 above mentioned types of sub-datasets.

Level-2A

Similarly to Level-1C, Level-2A products are organized in ortho-rectified tiles of 100 km x 100 km in UTM WGS84 projections. The imagery of each band is put in a separate JPEG2000 file. The values are Bottom-Of-Atmosphere (BOA) reflectances. L2A specific bands are also computed:

  • AOT: Aerosol Optical Thickness map (at 550nm)

  • CLD: Raster mask values range from 0 for high confidence clear sky to 100 for high confidence cloudy

  • SCL: Scene Classification. The meaning of the values is indicated in the Category Names of the band.

  • SNW: Raster mask values range from 0 for high confidence NO snow/ice to 100 for high confidence snow/ice

  • WVP: Scene-average Water Vapour map

When opening the main metadata .xml file, the driver will typically expose 4 sub-datasets:

  • one for the 4 native 10m bands, and L2A specific bands (AOT and WVP)

  • one for the 6 native 20m bands, and L2A specific bands (AOT, WVP, SCL, CLD and SNW),

  • one for the B01 and B09 native 60m bands, and L2A specific bands (AOT, WVP, SCL, CLD and SNW),

  • one for a true-color image (TCI) of the R,G,B bands at a 10m resolution, for the "compact" L2A product formulation (or a preview of the R,G,B bands at a 320m resolution for the older L2A product formulation). The TCI products at resolution 20m and 60m are not exposed, as they are just subsampled versions of the 10m product.

All tiles of same resolution and projection are mosaiced together. If a product spans over several UTM zones, they will be exposed as separate subdatasets.

Metadata

Metadata of the main metadata .xml file is available in the general metadata domain. The whole XML file is also accessible through the xml:SENTINEL2 metadata domain.

Subdatasets are based on the VRT format, so the definition of this VRT can be obtained by querying the xml:VRT metadata domain.

Performance issues for L1C and L2A

Due to the way Sentinel-2 products are structured, in particular because of the number of JPEG2000 files involved, zoom-out operations can be very slow for products made of many tiles. For interactive display, it can be useful to generate overviews (can be a slow operation by itself). This can be done with the gdaladdo utility on the subdataset name. The overview file is created next to the main metadata .xml file, with the same name, but prefixed with _XX_EPSG_YYYYY.tif.ovr where XX=10m,20m,60m or PREVIEW and YYYYY is the EPSG code.

Trick: if the content of the zoom-out preview is not important for the use case, blank overviews can be created instantaneously by using the NONE resampling method ('-r none' as gdaladdo switch).

When converting a subdataset to another format like tiled GeoTIFF, if using the JP2OpenJPEG driver, the recommended minimum value for the GDAL_CACHEMAX configuration option is (subdataset_width * 2048 * 2 ) / 10000000 if generating a INTERLEAVE=BAND GeoTIFF, or that value multiplied by the number of bands for the default INTERLEAVE=PIXEL configuration. The current versions of the OpenJPEG libraries can also consume a lot of memory to decode a JPEG2000 tile (up to 600MB), so you might want to specify the GDAL_NUM_THREADS configuration option to a reasonable number of threads if you are short of memory (the default value is the total number of virtual CPUs).

Open options

Open options can be specified in command-line tools using the syntax -oo <NAME>=<VALUE> or by providing the appropriate arguments to GDALOpenEx() (C) or gdal.OpenEx (Python). The driver can be passed the following open options:

  • ALPHA=[YES/NO]: Defaults to NO. Whether to expose an alpha band. If set, an extra band is added after the Sentinel2 bands with an alpha channel. Its value are:

    • 0 on areas with no tiles, or when the tile data is set to the NODATA or SATURATED special values,

    • 4095 on areas with valid data.

Note: above open options can also be specified as configuration options, by prefixing the open option name with SENTINEL2_ (e.g. SENTINEL2_ALPHA).

Examples

  • Opening the main metadata file of a Sentinel2 product:

    $ gdalinfo S2A_OPER_MTD_SAFL1C_PDMC_20150818T101440_R022_V20150813T102406_20150813T102406.xml

    Driver: SENTINEL2/Sentinel 2
Files: S2A_OPER_MTD_SAFL1C_PDMC_20150818T101440_R022_V20150813T102406_20150813T102406.xml
Size is 512, 512
Coordinate System is `'
Metadata:
  CLOUD_COVERAGE_ASSESSMENT=0.0
  DATATAKE_1_DATATAKE_SENSING_START=2015-08-13T10:10:26.027Z
  DATATAKE_1_DATATAKE_TYPE=INS-NOBS
  DATATAKE_1_ID=GS2A_20150813T101026_000734_N01.03
  DATATAKE_1_SENSING_ORBIT_DIRECTION=DESCENDING
  DATATAKE_1_SENSING_ORBIT_NUMBER=22
  DATATAKE_1_SPACECRAFT_NAME=Sentinel-2A
  DEGRADED_ANC_DATA_PERCENTAGE=0
  DEGRADED_MSI_DATA_PERCENTAGE=0
  FOOTPRINT=POLYGON((11.583573986577191 46.02490454425771, 11.538730738326866 45.03757398414644, 12.93007028286133 44.99812645604949, 12.999359413660665 45.98408391203724, 11.583573986577191 46.02490454425771, 11.583573986577191 46.02490454425771))
  FORMAT_CORRECTNESS_FLAG=PASSED
  GENERAL_QUALITY_FLAG=PASSED
  GENERATION_TIME=2015-08-18T10:14:40.000283Z
  GEOMETRIC_QUALITY_FLAG=PASSED
  PREVIEW_GEO_INFO=BrowseImageFootprint
  PREVIEW_IMAGE_URL=https://pdmcdam2.sentinel2.eo.esa.int/s2pdgs_geoserver/geo_service.php?service=WMS&version=1.1.0&request=GetMap&layers=S2A_A000022_N0103:S2A_A000022_N0103&styles=&bbox=11.538730738326866,44.99812645604949,12.999359413660665,46.02490454425771&width=1579&height=330&srs=EPSG:4326&format=image/png&time=2015-08-13T10:24:06.0Z/2015-08-13T10:24:06.0Z
  PROCESSING_BASELINE=01.03
  PROCESSING_LEVEL=Level-1C
  PRODUCT_START_TIME=2015-08-13T10:24:06.637Z
  PRODUCT_STOP_TIME=2015-08-13T10:24:06.637Z
  PRODUCT_TYPE=S2MSI1C
  QUANTIFICATION_VALUE=1000
  RADIOMETRIC_QUALITY_FLAG=PASSED
  REFERENCE_BAND=B1
  REFLECTANCE_CONVERSION_U=0.973195961910065
  SENSOR_QUALITY_FLAG=PASSED
  SPECIAL_VALUE_NODATA=1
  SPECIAL_VALUE_SATURATED=0
Subdatasets:
  SUBDATASET_1_NAME=SENTINEL2_L1C:S2A_OPER_MTD_SAFL1C_PDMC_20150818T101440_R022_V20150813T102406_20150813T102406.xml:10m:EPSG_32632
  SUBDATASET_1_DESC=Bands B2, B3, B4, B8 with 10m resolution, UTM 32N
  SUBDATASET_2_NAME=SENTINEL2_L1C:S2A_OPER_MTD_SAFL1C_PDMC_20150818T101440_R022_V20150813T102406_20150813T102406.xml:20m:EPSG_32632
  SUBDATASET_2_DESC=Bands B5, B6, B7, B8A, B11, B12 with 20m resolution, UTM 32N
  SUBDATASET_3_NAME=SENTINEL2_L1C:S2A_OPER_MTD_SAFL1C_PDMC_20150818T101440_R022_V20150813T102406_20150813T102406.xml:60m:EPSG_32632
  SUBDATASET_3_DESC=Bands B1, B9, B10 with 60m resolution, UTM 32N
  SUBDATASET_4_NAME=SENTINEL2_L1C:S2A_OPER_MTD_SAFL1C_PDMC_20150818T101440_R022_V20150813T102406_20150813T102406.xml:PREVIEW:EPSG_32632
  SUBDATASET_4_DESC=RGB preview, UTM 32N
Corner Coordinates:
Upper Left  (    0.0,    0.0)
Lower Left  (    0.0,  512.0)
Upper Right (  512.0,    0.0)
Lower Right (  512.0,  512.0)
Center      (  256.0,  256.0)

  • Opening the .zip file directly:

    $ gdalinfo S2A_OPER_PRD_MSIL1C_PDMC_20150818T101440_R022_V20150813T102406_20150813T102406.zip

  • Opening the 10 meters resolution bands of a L1C subdataset:

    $ gdalinfo SENTINEL2_L1C:S2A_OPER_MTD_SAFL1C_PDMC_20150818T101440_R022_V20150813T102406_20150813T102406.xml:10m:EPSG_32632

    Driver: SENTINEL2/Sentinel 2
Files: S2A_OPER_MTD_SAFL1C_PDMC_20150818T101440_R022_V20150813T102406_20150813T102406.xml
       ./GRANULE/S2A_OPER_MSI_L1C_TL_MTI__20150813T201603_A000734_T32TQR_N01.03/S2A_OPER_MTD_L1C_TL_MTI__20150813T201603_A000734_T32TQR.xml
       ./GRANULE/S2A_OPER_MSI_L1C_TL_MTI__20150813T201603_A000734_T32TQR_N01.03/IMG_DATA/S2A_OPER_MSI_L1C_TL_MTI__20150813T201603_A000734_T32TQR_B04.jp2
       ./GRANULE/S2A_OPER_MSI_L1C_TL_MTI__20150813T201603_A000734_T32TQR_N01.03/IMG_DATA/S2A_OPER_MSI_L1C_TL_MTI__20150813T201603_A000734_T32TQR_B03.jp2
       ./GRANULE/S2A_OPER_MSI_L1C_TL_MTI__20150813T201603_A000734_T32TQR_N01.03/IMG_DATA/S2A_OPER_MSI_L1C_TL_MTI__20150813T201603_A000734_T32TQR_B02.jp2
       ./GRANULE/S2A_OPER_MSI_L1C_TL_MTI__20150813T201603_A000734_T32TQR_N01.03/IMG_DATA/S2A_OPER_MSI_L1C_TL_MTI__20150813T201603_A000734_T32TQR_B08.jp2
Size is 10980, 10980
Coordinate System is:
PROJCS["WGS 84 / UTM zone 32N",
    GEOGCS["WGS 84",
        DATUM["WGS_1984",
            SPHEROID["WGS 84",6378137,298.257223563,
                AUTHORITY["EPSG","7030"]],
            AUTHORITY["EPSG","6326"]],
        PRIMEM["Greenwich",0,
            AUTHORITY["EPSG","8901"]],
        UNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433,
            AUTHORITY["EPSG","9122"]],
        AUTHORITY["EPSG","4326"]],
    PROJECTION["Transverse_Mercator"],
    PARAMETER["latitude_of_origin",0],
    PARAMETER["central_meridian",9],
    PARAMETER["scale_factor",0.9996],
    PARAMETER["false_easting",500000],
    PARAMETER["false_northing",0],
    UNIT["metre",1,
        AUTHORITY["EPSG","9001"]],
    AXIS["Easting",EAST],
    AXIS["Northing",NORTH],
    AUTHORITY["EPSG","32632"]]
Origin = (699960.000000000000000,5100060.000000000000000)
Pixel Size = (10.000000000000000,-10.000000000000000)
Metadata:
[... same as above ...]
Image Structure Metadata:
  COMPRESSION=JPEG2000
Corner Coordinates:
Upper Left  (  699960.000, 5100060.000) ( 11d35' 0.87"E, 46d 1'29.66"N)
Lower Left  (  699960.000, 4990260.000) ( 11d32'19.43"E, 45d 2'15.27"N)
Upper Right (  809760.000, 5100060.000) ( 12d59'57.69"E, 45d59' 2.70"N)
Lower Right (  809760.000, 4990260.000) ( 12d55'48.25"E, 44d59'53.26"N)
Center      (  754860.000, 5045160.000) ( 12d15'46.56"E, 45d30'48.07"N)
Band 1 Block=128x128 Type=UInt16, ColorInterp=Red
  Description = B4, central wavelength 665 nm
  Overviews: 5490x5490, 2745x2745, 1373x1373, 687x687, 344x344
  Metadata:
    BANDNAME=B4
    BANDWIDTH=30
    BANDWIDTH_UNIT=nm
    SOLAR_IRRADIANCE=1512.79
    SOLAR_IRRADIANCE_UNIT=W/m2/um
    WAVELENGTH=665
    WAVELENGTH_UNIT=nm
  Image Structure Metadata:
    NBITS=12
Band 2 Block=128x128 Type=UInt16, ColorInterp=Green
  Description = B3, central wavelength 560 nm
[...]
Band 3 Block=128x128 Type=UInt16, ColorInterp=Blue
  Description = B2, central wavelength 490 nm
[...]
Band 4 Block=128x128 Type=UInt16, ColorInterp=Undefined
  Description = B8, central wavelength 842 nm
[...]

  • Conversion of a L1C subdataset to tiled GeoTIFF

    $ gdal_translate SENTINEL2_L1C:S2A_OPER_MTD_SAFL1C_PDMC_20150818T101440_R022_V20150813T102406_20150813T102406.xml:10m:EPSG_32632 \
                 10m.tif \
                 -co TILED=YES --config GDAL_CACHEMAX 1000 --config GDAL_NUM_THREADS 2

  • Generating blank overviews for a L1C subdataset:

    $ gdaladdo -r NONE SENTINEL2_L1C:S2A_OPER_MTD_SAFL1C_PDMC_20150818T101440_R022_V20150813T102406_20150813T102406.xml:10m:EPSG_32632 4

  • Creating a VRT file from the subdataset (can be convenient to have the subdatasets as files):

    $ python3 -c "import sys; from osgeo import gdal; ds = gdal.Open(sys.argv[1]); open(sys.argv[2], 'wb').write(ds.GetMetadata('xml:VRT')[0].encode('utf-8'))" \
         SENTINEL2_L1C:S2A_OPER_MTD_SAFL1C_PDMC_20150818T101440_R022_V20150813T102406_20150813T102406.xml:10m:EPSG_32632 10m.vrt

  • Opening the 10 meters resolution bands of a L1B subdataset:

    $ gdalinfo SENTINEL2_L1B:S2A_OPER_MTD_L1B_GR_SGS__20151024T023555_S20151024T011315_D02.xml:10m

    Driver: SENTINEL2/Sentinel 2
Files: S2A_OPER_MTD_L1B_GR_SGS__20151024T023555_S20151024T011315_D02.xml
       IMG_DATA/S2A_OPER_MSI_L1B_GR_SGS__20151024T023555_S20151024T011315_D02_B04.jp2
       IMG_DATA/S2A_OPER_MSI_L1B_GR_SGS__20151024T023555_S20151024T011315_D02_B03.jp2
       IMG_DATA/S2A_OPER_MSI_L1B_GR_SGS__20151024T023555_S20151024T011315_D02_B02.jp2
       IMG_DATA/S2A_OPER_MSI_L1B_GR_SGS__20151024T023555_S20151024T011315_D02_B08.jp2
Size is 2552, 2304
Coordinate System is `'
GCP Projection =
GEOGCS["WGS 84",
    DATUM["WGS_1984",
        SPHEROID["WGS 84",6378137,298.257223563,
            AUTHORITY["EPSG","7030"]],
        AUTHORITY["EPSG","6326"]],
    PRIMEM["Greenwich",0,
        AUTHORITY["EPSG","8901"]],
    UNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433,
        AUTHORITY["EPSG","9122"]],
    AUTHORITY["EPSG","4326"]]
GCP[  0]: Id=, Info=
          (0,0) -> (134.635194391036,-21.4282083310724,0)
GCP[  1]: Id=, Info=
          (0,2304) -> (134.581480136827,-21.6408640426055,0)
GCP[  2]: Id=, Info=
          (2552,2304) -> (134.833308274251,-21.686125031254,0)
GCP[  3]: Id=, Info=
          (2552,0) -> (134.886750925145,-21.4734274382519,0)
GCP[  4]: Id=, Info=
          (1276,1152) -> (134.734115530986,-21.5571457404287,0)
Metadata:
  CLOUDY_PIXEL_PERCENTAGE=0
  DATASTRIP_ID=S2A_OPER_MSI_L1B_DS_SGS__20151024T023555_S20151024T011312_N01.04
  DATATAKE_1_DATATAKE_SENSING_START=2015-10-24T01:13:12.027Z
  DATATAKE_1_DATATAKE_TYPE=INS-NOBS
  DATATAKE_1_ID=GS2A_20151024T011312_001758_N01.04
  DATATAKE_1_SENSING_ORBIT_DIRECTION=DESCENDING
  DATATAKE_1_SENSING_ORBIT_NUMBER=45
  DATATAKE_1_SPACECRAFT_NAME=Sentinel-2A
  DEGRADED_ANC_DATA_PERCENTAGE=0
  DEGRADED_MSI_DATA_PERCENTAGE=0
  DETECTOR_ID=02
  DOWNLINK_PRIORITY=NOMINAL
  FOOTPRINT=POLYGON((134.635194391036 -21.4282083310724, 134.581480136827 -21.6408640426055, 134.833308274251 -21.686125031254, 134.886750925145 -21.4734274382519, 134.635194391036 -21.4282083310724))
  FORMAT_CORRECTNESS_FLAG=PASSED
  GENERAL_QUALITY_FLAG=PASSED
  GENERATION_TIME=2015-11-12T10:55:12.000947Z
  GEOMETRIC_QUALITY_FLAG=PASSED
  GRANULE_ID=S2A_OPER_MSI_L1B_GR_SGS__20151024T023555_S20151024T011315_D02_N01.04
  PREVIEW_GEO_INFO=BrowseImageFootprint
  PREVIEW_IMAGE_URL=https://pdmcdam2.sentinel2.eo.esa.int/s2pdgs_geoserver/geo_service.php?service=WMS&version=1.1.0&request=GetMap&layers=S2A_A000045_N0104:S2A_A000045_N0104&styles=&bbox=133.512786023161,-25.3930035889714,137.184847290108,-21.385906922696&width=1579&height=330&srs=EPSG:4326&format=image/png&time=2015-10-24T01:13:15.0Z/2015-10-24T01:14:13.0Z
  PROCESSING_BASELINE=01.04
  PROCESSING_LEVEL=Level-1B
  PRODUCT_START_TIME=2015-10-24T01:13:15.497656Z
  PRODUCT_STOP_TIME=2015-10-24T01:14:13.70431Z
  PRODUCT_TYPE=S2MSI1B
  RADIOMETRIC_QUALITY_FLAG=PASSED
  SENSING_TIME=2015-10-24T01:13:15.497656Z
  SENSOR_QUALITY_FLAG=PASSED
  SPECIAL_VALUE_NODATA=1
  SPECIAL_VALUE_SATURATED=0
Corner Coordinates:
Upper Left  (    0.0,    0.0)
Lower Left  (    0.0, 2304.0)
Upper Right ( 2552.0,    0.0)
Lower Right ( 2552.0, 2304.0)
Center      ( 1276.0, 1152.0)
Band 1 Block=128x128 Type=UInt16, ColorInterp=Red
  Description = B4, central wavelength 665 nm
  Overviews: 1276x1152, 638x576, 319x288, 160x144
  Metadata:
    BANDNAME=B4
    BANDWIDTH=30
    BANDWIDTH_UNIT=nm
    WAVELENGTH=665
    WAVELENGTH_UNIT=nm
  Image Structure Metadata:
    NBITS=12
Band 2 Block=128x128 Type=UInt16, ColorInterp=Green
  Description = B3, central wavelength 560 nm
[...]
Band 3 Block=128x128 Type=UInt16, ColorInterp=Blue
  Description = B2, central wavelength 490 nm
[...]
Band 4 Block=128x128 Type=UInt16, ColorInterp=Undefined
  Description = B8, central wavelength 842 nm
[...]

See Also

Credits

This driver has been developed by Spatialys with funding from Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES)