Sentinel-2 GeoMAD: Annual Cloud-Free Mosaics Over the Pacific

GeoMAD mosaics use a robust method to create cloud-free annual composites from Sentinel-2 satellite imagery. The product includes a geometric median observation and three measures of variance, which likely capture changes in land cover over time. The dataset is hosted by AWS Open Data and covers the Pacific region.

Use Cases

• Detect land cover changes over time based on the variance measures.
• Create stable baseline maps for environmental monitoring using the cloud-free median mosaic.
• Analyze seasonal or annual variability in agricultural areas based on the description of crop land changes.
• Compare temporal stability of different landscapes, such as deserts versus croplands, using the absolute deviations.

Strengths

• Product uses a robust geometric median method, not a simple median.
• Includes three measures of variance to help understand change.
• Specifically designed to be cloud-free.
• Focuses on the Pacific region.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Pacific Community (SPC)

Collection Method

Derived from Sentinel-2 satellite imagery using a geometric median and absolute deviations algorithm.

Geography

Pacific region