Serving continuous and global high resolution satellite data -- an example based on Sentinel-2 data

Abstract

For the Copernicus Data and Exploitation Platform of Germany (CODE-DE) a full resolution imagery service of Sentinel-2 Level-1C data has been developed. Based on the experiences of this project this paper provides a general overview on how OGC-compliant online access services of large earth observation data sets can be implemented. Different means of implementation are compared through criteria such as the performance of the web services, the storage requirements and the processing power needed as well as the quality and flexibility reached. Considerations like projection, transparency, bit depth, formats and compression play a big role in serving the data in a performant way. This work aims to suggest best practices and to assist on which option to choose for which dedicated use case.