---
license: mit
language:
  - en
tags:
  - agricolture
  - computer-vision
pretty_name: sen12vts
---

# SEN12VTS: Sentinel 1 and 2 Vegetation Time-Series Dataset

## Overview

The **SEN12VTS** (Sentinel-1 & Sentinel-2 Vegetation Time-Series) dataset has been created to support research on time-series analysis for vegetation indices, specifically targeting **NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index)** regression tasks. Recognizing the lack of datasets catering to this specific temporal and spatial need, SEN12VTS was developed to fill the gap with a high-quality, Europe-focused time-series dataset.

## Motivation

This dataset is part of the **GUARDIANS project**, aiming to build models for vegetation monitoring across Europe. The focus is on:

- **Highly vegetated areas**.
- Sampling over time to enable the reconstruction of coherent time-series for selected zones.

## Dataset Description

### Spatial and Temporal Extent

- **Region:** Europe (approx. bounded by EPSG:4326 `(-10.5, 34.5, 31.6, 71.5)`).
- **Temporal Coverage:** 2022–2023.
- **Spatial Resolution:** 10 meters.

### Data Sources

1. **ESA WorldCover 2021**: Used to identify highly vegetated areas.
2. **Sentinel-1 RTC**: Radiometrically Terrain Corrected radar imagery for ascending and descending orbits, VV and VH polarization.
3. **Sentinel-2 L2A**: Atmospherically corrected optical imagery with 12 spectral bands and Scene Classification (SCL).

### Sampling Methodology

- Bounding boxes (bboxes) of size 512x512 pixels were sampled where **90% of pixels** corresponded to vegetation categories (WorldCover values: 10, 20, 30, 40, 90, 95).
- Non-overlapping bboxes were selected within the Europe bounds.
- Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data were downloaded for 1,166 bboxes across the two years.
- Final cropped tiles: **256x256 pixels**.

### Dataset Statistics

- **BBoxes (2022 only):** 36
- **BBoxes (2023 only):** 454
- **BBoxes (both years):** 676
- **Total Dataset Size:** ~824.89 GB

## Data Structure

Each bbox folder contains the following subfolders and files:

```
bbox_number/
    ├── s1_rtc/
    │   ├── ascending/
    │   │   ├── s1_rtc_YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS.tif
    │   │   ├── s1_rtc_YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS.tif
    │   │   ├── ...
    │   ├── descending/
    │       ├── s1_rtc_YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS.tif
    │       ├── s1_rtc_YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS.tif
    │       ├── ...
    ├── s2/
    │   ├── s2_YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS.tif
    │   ├── s2_YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS.tif
    │   ├── ...
    ├── worldcover/
        ├── worldcover.tif
```

### File Formats

- **TIFF (Tagged Image File Format):** Used for storing all raster data with metadata and lossless compression.

## Sentinel Data Details

### Sentinel-1 RTC

- Pre-processed for radiometric terrain correction and orthorectified to UTM zones.
- Data stored in ascending and descending orbits to allow analysis of orbit-specific effects.
- Each file has two bands, in this order: VV, VH

### Sentinel-2 L2A

- 12 spectral bands selected, along with a scene classification map ([SCL](https://custom-scripts.sentinel-hub.com/custom-scripts/sentinel-2/scene-classification/)).
- Resolutions vary from **10m to 60m** (resampled to 10m).

### [WorldCover](https://esa-worldcover.org/en)

- Extracted and resampled to match bbox projections for consistency.

## Example Visualization

The dataset provides:

- RGB composites from Sentinel-2 (red, green, and blue bands).
- NDVI derived from Sentinel-2 data.
- Sentinel-1 radar images for both polarizations (ascending and descending).
- WorldCover classification maps.

![Time-Series Visualization](resources/preview.png "Example of Time-Series Visualization")

## Citation

If you use SEN12VTS in your research, please cite this repository and the corresponding publication.

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## Usage

The dataset can be used for various applications, including but not limited to:

- NDVI regression.
- Vegetation monitoring and analysis.
- Time-series forecasting.
- Multi-sensor data fusion.

## Licensing

The dataset is distributed under MIT license, and its use is subject to compliance with the Sentinel and ESA WorldCover data usage policies.

---

### Contact

For questions, issues, or contributions, please open an issue on this repository or contact federico.oldani@gmail.com.