GHS-composite-S2 R2020A - Sentinel-2 global pixel based image composite from L1C data for the period 2017-2018

GHS_DOY_S2_L1C_2017-2018_GLOBE_R2020A is raster grid at 10 meter resolution representing the Day of the Year (DOY) of the images contributing the Sentinel-2 image composite

GHS_composite_S2_L1C_2017-2018_GLOBE_R2020A corresponds to global cloud-free pixel based composite created from the Sentinel-2 data archive (Level L1C) available in Google Earth Engine for the period January 2017- December 2018.The pixel based image composite consists of a global scale raster grid of four spectral bands (B2: Blue, B3: Green, B4: Red and B8: Near Infrared) with a spatial resolution of 10 meters. It is produced and tiled following the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) system with each tile having the projection of the UTM zones (UTM/WGS84 projection) to which it corresponds to. This dataset has been used as the core input data for the update of the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT) by mapping built-up areas at a spatial resolution of 10 meters .

Project Web site

Large-scale land cover classification from satellite imagery is still a challenge due to the big volume of data to be processed, to persistent cloud-cover in cloud-prone areas as well as seasonal artefacts that affect spatial homogeneity. Sentinel-2 times series from Copernicus Earth Observation program offer a great potential for fine scale land cover mapping thanks to high spatial and temporal resolutions, with a decametric resolution and five-day repeat time. However, the selection of best available scenes, their download together with the requirements in terms of storage and computing resources pose restrictions for large-scale land cover mapping. The dataset presented in this paper corresponds to global cloud-free pixel based composite created from the Sentinel-2 data archive (Level L1C) available in Google Earth Engine for the period January 2017- December 2018. The methodology used for generating the image composite is described and the metadata associated with the 10 m resolution dataset is presented. The data with a total volume of 10 TB is stored on the Big Data platform of the Joint Research Centre. It can be downloaded per UTM grid zone, loaded into GIS clients and displayed easily thanks to pre-computed overviews.