Full catalog/sentinel-3-olci-2-wfr-nrt
sentinel-3-olci-2-wfr-nrt·dataset

Ocean color and water reflectance, fast delivery (Copernicus)

Sentinel-3 OLCI Water Full Resolution (NRT)
land ESA ESA Copernicus active
In plain English

What it measures. Measurements of the color of the ocean and the light leaving the water surface at 300-meter detail, which indicate things like algae and water clarity.

How it's made. Made by ESA Copernicus from the Sentinel-3 Ocean and Land Color Instrument, processed to Level-2 water products in near-real-time.

How & where you'd use it. Used to watch algal blooms, water quality, and coastal conditions soon after they are observed.

What's measured

300mCopernicusECESAEUGlobalOLCIOL_2_WFR____OceanPT3HSatelliteSentinelSentinel-3Water

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2017-11-01 → 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

This collection provides Sentinel-3 OLCI Level-2 Water Full Resolution products containing data on water-leaving reflectance, ocean color, and more.

Get the data

copernicus_access.py
# 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-2-wfr-nrt"],   # 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 / xarray
Browsing the Copernicus STAC is open; downloading bytes needs a free Copernicus Data Space account.