No L2A images found before april 2018

Hello,
I am browsing L2A images from january 2017 to august 2019 on Copernicus Open Access Hub but no images are found before april 2018. However when I browse L1C images there is no problem.
why is this occuring?

thanks

Hello
Google is your friend…
" Level-2A products are systematically generated at the ground segment over Europe since March 2018, and the production was extended to global in December 2018. Level-2A generation can also be performed by the user through the Sentinel-2 Toolbox using as input the associated Level-1C product (demonstrated below)."

https://sentinels.copernicus.eu/web/sentinel/user-guides/sentinel-2-msi/product-types/level-2a

Cheers

Jan

S2 MPC Operations Manager

1 Like

Hello Jan,

Last year, I downloaded L2A products of “2017” as I listed below.

However now I cannot see these images on the search results when I browse. Thats why I asked this question.

By the way I know It is possible to generate L2A product from L1C in SNAP but my question was not about it.

Thanks.

Hi @PiriReis

The products you identify are pre-operational production L2A products (S2MSI2Ap).

https://scihub.copernicus.eu/news/News00179

Cheers

Jan

Hello.

I’m replying to this conversation because it seems the closest to my question.
As far as I know, this is an essential timeline of L2A availability:

  • May 2017: pre-operational S-2 L2A products over Europe that were sensed from 28 March 2017 onwards were made available (news 00173, news 00179);
  • March 2018: S-2 L2A becomes an operational product, although still limited to the Euro-Mediterranean region (news 00298, news 00305);
  • December 2018: S-2 L2A production extended to global (Sentinel-2 MSI User Guide).

I know I can process L2A from L1C by myself using Sen2Cor, but my question is: is there a technical reason for which no Sentinel-2 L2A product sensed before March 2017 was made available by Copernicus? I mean, for example, possible constraints in older L1C processing baselines, different radiometric quality levels, or something else.

Thanks in advance

Hello @laterza

the technical reason is there wasn’t an L2A processor before that date :slight_smile:
However, we are currently preparing to reprocess the whole archive, including all products up to L2A (where possible).

Cheers

Jan

Jan Jackson

OPT-MPC S2 Technical Manager

Thank you, Jan!


we are currently preparing to reprocess the whole archive, including all products up to L2A

This sounds great!


(where possible)

So my question still stands: are there technical reasons for which it will not be possible sometimes?

Thank you

Hello @latzera

As I understand it, there shouldn’t be. I’m typing this with my fingers crossed :slight_smile: We have been validating the processor against early orbits, and this hasn’t thrown up any issues in data quality, but the process is still ongoing.

Cheers

Jan

Jan Jackson

OPT-MPC S2 Technical Manager