Have you ever struggled with dataset compatibility problems? Have you ever wished all global satellite datasets in the world would be in the same standardized format? We are one step closer to making this dream come true.
Spatio Temporal Asset Catalogue (STAC) is a standardized way to access raster datasets relevant for a specific spatial location and timeframe. STAC is optimized for cloud processing of massive datasets. Many earth observation data analysis tools are compatible with STAC, making use of its rich metadata model to handle the differences of each data source. STAC optimizes data access by avoiding download of predefined units, instead enabling direct access to a subset of the data based on spatial, temporal and metadata filters. Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, the data access and cloud processing platform of the Copernicus Programme has recently released a new STAC Catalog for Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data. The main improvement is the removal of satellite-specific STAC extensions in favour of a more generic metadata model, also compatible with new Sentinel satellites and contributing missions. Additionally, all spectral channels including low-resolution ones are now supported. If your processing software supports the STAC model, it will now be able to directly work with Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data in a streamlined way, saving you the trouble of downloading, storing and preparing data. openEO is an example for such a tool: it is compatible with all STAC-compliant datasets and endpoints, and can therefore be used for integrating information from many different sources into one common workflow.
Detailed documentation is available here while a Jupyter notebook tutorial can be accessed in this repository and on the CDSE Jupyter Lab.