These data have been created by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) in order to cost-effectively provide high quality, Analysis Ready Data (ARD) for a wide range of applications. The dataset contains modified Copernicus Sentinel-2 (Level 1C data processed into a surface reflectance product (Level 2)). Defra and JNCC data were processed on separate platforms using a common specification to produce complementary outputs up to and including the acquisition date 23/06/2023. Data acquired after that date were processed on a single platform to the same specification.

The majority of data captured between July 2015 and August 2017 was processed by Aberystwyth University for Defra and later updated by JNCC to the same specification as the rest of this dataset. Please see the image-level metadata for details of data lineage and processing.

The Sentinel-2 ARD filename format was changed in April 2023. Filenames of data acquired on or after 01/04/2023 include the timestamp of data generation and display image latitude and longitude to a consistent number of significant figures preceded by ‘n’ (North) and ‘e/w’ (East / West). Filenames of data acquired before this date do not include the data generation timestamp and display latitude and longitude to varying significant figures not preceded by ‘n’ and ‘e/w’.