Why is the ACOLITE time different for Sentinel-2?

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quinten
Posts: 1010
Joined: Tue Mar 03, 2015 8:13 am

Why is the ACOLITE time different for Sentinel-2?

Post by quinten »

The time in the ACOLITE output files can be different from the time in the Sentinel-2 SAFE file names. This is because ACOLITE uses the GRANULE SENSING_TIME variable to estimate the acquisition time of the granule that is being processed. The time in the SAFE file name is the datatake sensing start time. Since a datatake can be up to 15000 km in length, there can be a significant offset between the datatake sensing time and the actual granule acquisition time.

For example, the SAFE file S2B_MSIL1C_20190723T143759_N0208_R096_T18HXE_20190723T180358.SAFE has a datatake start time of 20190723T143759, or 14:37:59 UTC on 2019-07-23, while the only granule in this product, L1C_T18HXE_A012420_20190723T144506, has a SENSING_TIME in the MTD_TD.xml file of 2019-07-23T14:53:19.914103Z or 14:53:19 UTC on 2019-07-23. I cannot find information on the date in the granule name, 14:45:06 UTC on 2019-07-23. The ACOLITE output name for this SAFE file would be derived from the SENSING_TIME, i.e. S2B_MSI_2019_07_23_14_53_19

References:
https://sentinels.copernicus.eu/web/sentinel/user-guides/sentinel-2-msi/definitions
https://sentinels.copernicus.eu/web/sentinel/user-guides/sentinel-2-msi/naming-convention
quinten
Posts: 1010
Joined: Tue Mar 03, 2015 8:13 am

Re: Why is the ACOLITE time different for Sentinel-2?

Post by quinten »

It is possible that the time in the granule name is the start time of the datastrip acquisition, as it matches the second date/time of the DATASTRIP_ID filename, S2B_OPER_MSI_L1C_DS_SGS__20190723T180358_S20190723T144506_N02.08 in the example used above.
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