An image quality assessment of near-simultaneous acquisitions from the sentinel-2A and sentinel-2C satellites

Edge methods are a family of mathematical procedures which have been extensively used to assess image quality. Among them, the Automatic Edge Method (AEM) was developed to estimate the sharpness and signal-to-noise ratio of high-resolution satellite images. The AEM automated the edge detection and selection steps, enabling standardised processing of a large volume of images and fair comparisons between similar products. The recent launch and commissioning of Sentinel-2C, which is set to be the replacement of Sentinel-2A, resulted in a period of tandem acquisitions from the two satellite platforms. We leverage this opportunity to assess the quality of five pairs of L1C products near-simultaneously acquired by the two satellites in terms of sharpness and signal-to-noise ratio using the AEM. The consistency of the results obtained from applying the AEM to these pairs of products provides evidence of the high quality of the imagery produced by the Sentinel-2 family of satellites. In addition, our results satisfy known system requirements and confirm previous estimates found in the related literature. The outcome of this case study may serve as a benchmark for image quality of the newly launched Sentinel-2C, and at the same time, as a confirmation of the persistently high quality of the imagery provided by Sentinel-2A almost ten years after its launch.