Full-resolution global color radiances, refined (Copernicus)
What it measures. The same 21-band, 300-meter measurements of light reaching the satellite across visible and near-infrared, covering the globe roughly every two days, but processed more carefully.
How it's made. Made by ESA Copernicus from the Sentinel-3 Ocean and Land Color Instrument as Level-1 non-time-critical radiances, prioritizing accuracy over speed.
How & where you'd use it. The carefully calibrated version used for research and long-term studies of ocean color, land, and atmosphere where precision matters more than timeliness.
What's measured
Coverage & cadence
- Time span2020-04-16 → ongoing
- Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
What you can do with it
- Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
- Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
- Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description
The Ocean and Land Color Instrument (OLCI) Earth Observation Full Resolution dataset contains top of atmosphere radiances at 21 spectral bands with center wavelengths ranging between 0.4µm and 1.02µm at spatial resolution of 300m with worldwide coverage every ~2 days.
Get the data
# ESA Copernicus Data Space — open STAC API (free account)
from pystac_client import Client
cat = Client.open("https://stac.dataspace.copernicus.eu/v1")
search = cat.search(
collections=["sentinel-3-olci-1-efr-ntc"], # add _cog or _nc for a format variant
bbox=(-10, 35, 30, 60), # your area (W,S,E,N)
datetime="2024-01-01/2024-12-31",
)
items = list(search.items()) # then read assets with rioxarray / xarrayBrowsing the Copernicus STAC is open; downloading bytes needs a free Copernicus Data Space account.
Official links
- Open data source Copernicus STAC