Sentinel-2 Level-1C + ACOLITE Dark Spectrum Fitting

ESA (data) + RBINS (processor)

Specification

Code: AL18
Reliability: B Usable
Variables delivered: Publication-grade Rrs → NDCI, MCI, FAI, phycocyanin, TSM over turbid inland water
Resolution: 10-20 m
Cadence: 5 days
Coverage: 2015-06 → present
Cost: FREE (both)
Login required: Free CDSE registration
Latency: depends on your compute
CSV direct?: ACOLITE writes NetCDF/GeoTIFF → convert
Sensor: Sentinel-2 MSI — 20 m, 5 day revisit

Applicability by site

Chakaria HDSS YES Rural COASTAL

THE RIGOROUS ROUTE for shrimp ponds

Matlab HDSS YES Rural riverine

THE RIGOROUS ROUTE for village ponds

Dhaka City YES Urban inland

THE RIGOROUS ROUTE for urban lakes

Access

Route: CDSE download + local ACOLITE run
Endpoint / asset ID: github.com/acolite/acolite
Pipeline step: 5 Reprocess
Documentation: https://odnature.naturalsciences.be/remsem/software-and-data/acolite

Command

cd 01_Scripts
python 07_algae_api_download.py --sources cdse

What to watch for

VALIDATION STATUS

DSF is the peer-reviewed standard for turbid inland/coastal water · used by Anas et al. 2021 at Vembanad

KNOWN LIMITATION

Requires local compute and disk (~1 GB per scene). Slow. But GEE's Sen2Cor L2A is NOT trustworthy over dark turbid water, so for any published concentration you need this.

Other datasets from the same sensor

AL03 · Sentinel-2 MSI Level-2A (harmonised) AL19 · GEE Sen2Cor L2A NDCI → chlorophyll polynomial