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Downloading Sentinel-2 Data

The SKeMa kelp models require Sentinel-2 Level-2A (L2A) satellite imagery in .SAFE folder format. This guide walks through acquiring that data from the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, which provides free access to the full Sentinel-2 archive.

Step 1: Create a Copernicus Data Space Account

  1. Navigate to https://browser.dataspace.copernicus.eu/
  2. Click Register and create a free account
  3. Sign in to your account

Step 2: Search for Imagery

  1. Use the map view to navigate to your study area

  2. Click Create an area of interest in the toolbar

    Create area of interest button in Copernicus Browser

  3. Select Draw polygon of interest and draw a polygon around your study area

    Drawing a polygon of interest on the map

    Completed polygon boundary around study area

  4. In the Search panel on the left:

    • Set the Data Source to Sentinel-2 → L2A
    • Set your desired date range
    • Set Max. cloud coverage (e.g., 20%) to filter out heavily clouded scenes

  5. Click Search to find available scenes

    Time range and cloud coverage filter settings

Choosing a scene

Select a scene with low cloud cover over your nearshore study area. Scenes with clouds over land but clear coastal water are usually fine.

Step 3: Download

  1. Click a scene tile in the map results to select it

    Selecting a Sentinel-2 scene from map results

  2. Confirm the scene covers your area of interest with acceptable cloud cover

  3. Click the download icon in the info panel — the file will be a .zip archive (typically 600 MB – 1 GB)

    Thumbnail preview and download icon

Step 4: Extract the .SAFE Folder

Sentinel-2 downloads arrive as .zip files. You must extract them before passing them to Habitat-Mapper.

unzip S2A_MSIL2A_*.zip

Expand-Archive -Path S2A_MSIL2A_*.zip -DestinationPath .

Right-click the .zip file and select Extract All, then choose a destination folder.

After extraction you will have a folder ending in .SAFE, for example:

S2A_MSIL2A_20230801T193851_N0509_R042_T10UED_20230802T003016.SAFE/

Next Step

With your .SAFE folder ready, continue to Selecting a Model Variant to choose which SKeMa model to run and how to invoke it.