Operational cloud screening service for Sentinel-2 image time series

Abstract

This paper deals with the development and implementation of a cloud screening algorithm for image time series, with the focus on the forthcoming Sentinel-2 satellites to be launched under the ESA Copernicus Programme. The proposed methodology is based on kernel ridge regression and exploits the temporal information to detect anomalous changes that correspond to cloud covers. The huge data volumes to be processed when dealing with high temporal, spatial, and spectral resolution datasets motivate the implementation of the algorithm within distributed computer resources. In consequence, an operational cloud screening service has been specifically designed and implemented in the frame of the Sentinels Synergy Framework (SenSyF). The effectiveness of the proposed method is successfully illustrated using a time series dataset with a 5-day revisit derived from SPOT-4 at high resolution, which has been collected by ESA in preparation for the exploitation of the Sentinel-2 mission.