Skip to content

Remote Sensing

SudaPy includes helpers for searching and downloading Sentinel satellite imagery via the Copernicus Open Access Hub.

Optional dependency

Remote sensing features require the rs extra: pip install "sudapy[rs]"

Setup

1. Install the extra

pip install "sudapy[rs]"

2. Set Copernicus credentials

Register at Copernicus Open Access Hub, then set environment variables:

export COPERNICUS_USER=your_username
export COPERNICUS_PASSWORD=your_password

set COPERNICUS_USER=your_username
set COPERNICUS_PASSWORD=your_password

$env:COPERNICUS_USER = "your_username"
$env:COPERNICUS_PASSWORD = "your_password"

Search for scenes

CLI

sudapy rs sentinel-search \
    --lon 32.5 --lat 15.6 \
    --start 2025-01-01 --end 2025-06-30 \
    --platform Sentinel-2 \
    --max-cloud 20

Python

from sudapy.rs.sentinel import search_scenes

results = search_scenes(
    lon=32.5,
    lat=15.6,
    start_date="2025-01-01",
    end_date="2025-06-30",
    platform_name="Sentinel-2",
    max_cloud=20,
)

for scene in results[:5]:
    print(f"{scene['date']}  cloud={scene['cloud_cover']:.1f}%  {scene['title']}")

Search parameters

Parameter Default Description
lon, lat (required) Center point coordinates
start_date, end_date (required) Date range as YYYY-MM-DD
platform_name Sentinel-2 Satellite platform
max_cloud 30 Maximum cloud cover percentage

Return format

Each result is a dictionary:

{
    "uuid": "abc123...",
    "title": "S2A_MSIL1C_20250115T...",
    "date": "2025-01-15",
    "cloud_cover": 12.3,
}

Download a scene

CLI

sudapy rs sentinel-download --uuid abc123... --out downloads/

Python

from sudapy.rs.sentinel import download_scene

path = download_scene(uuid="abc123...", out_dir="downloads/")
print(f"Downloaded to: {path}")

Workflow example

# 1. Search for recent low-cloud Sentinel-2 scenes near Khartoum
sudapy rs sentinel-search \
    --lon 32.5 --lat 15.6 \
    --start 2025-01-01 --end 2025-03-31 \
    --max-cloud 10

# 2. Download a specific scene (copy UUID from search results)
sudapy rs sentinel-download --uuid <UUID> --out data_raw/

# 3. Process the downloaded raster
sudapy raster clip --in data_raw/scene.tif --clip study_area.gpkg --out clipped.tif
sudapy raster reproject --in clipped.tif --out scene_utm.tif --to 32636