Benefits of the Sentinel-2 mission triplet constellation in 2025

Katarzyna Ewa Lewinska, Olivier Hagolle, Ferran Gascon, Patrick Griffiths, Ulf Leser, Patrick Hostert

With the first-year extension of Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite operations nearing its end, an evaluation of its added-value is urgently needed. Here, we show that despite reduced spatio temporal coverage, the additional Sentinel-2A acquisitions in 2025 enhanced the number of usable Sentinel-2 observations over Europe for the March-December period by almost 34%, and at the global scale by more than 21% for March-June. Furthermore, using regional and local examples, we demonstrate that the triplet Sentinel-2 constellation presents a clear advantage for land use and land cover change monitoring, as well as near-real-time observations, providing higher temporal fidelity and great potential for improved risk and disaster assessments, thus strengthening the capacity of research analyses and operational services alike. Overall, our results highlight the advantages of extending Sentinel 2A operational lifetime to maintain the triplet constellation of the Sentinel-2 mission.