A SENTINEL-2 Level-1B product always refers to one Datatake and may contain one or several datastrips from the same orbit.

The Level-1B product includes:

• a main metadata file (in XML format) referring to the following product elements:
  • image data files (one JPEG2000 file per spectral band), corresponding to granules or an aggregation of granules at Level-1B (optional)
  • preview image data files (JPEG2000);
  • all auxiliary data used for Level-1B processing such as GIPPs (set of configuration XML files) and references to the used DEM and Global Reference Image data
  • quality indicators derived from Level-1A product and complemented by quality indicators corresponding to the Level-1B processing including quality mask files (JPEG2000 and GML format)

The main metadata file (XML) will be provided by default in:

• SAFE standard (SAFE Archive Format for Europe)

Figure 1: SENTINEL-2 product physical format

Image Data Encoding and Files

Each pixel value is encoded in 12 bits and is directly proportional to radiance values using physical gain factors.

The image data is provided by a set of raster files, either a file per spectral band and per granule, or a file per spectral band and detector corresponding to the aggregation of granules along track.

Each image file is compressed, in LOSSLESS mode, using the JPEG2000 algorithm.

Reference Document: GSC SENTINEL-2 PDGS Products Definition Document (ESA Document)