Satellite imagery
Bands, reflectance, cloud masks and composites — turning scenes into an array you can trust.
Everything on Spatial Workflow about satellite imagery, in the order that usually works: understand the idea, then run the task, then fix it when it goes wrong. 22 guides in total.
3 learning paths run through this topic — follow one if you would rather work through a route than pick a single guide.
🧭 Start with the concepts
The ideas the how-to guides below assume you already have.
- Spectral Bands Explained: What Satellite Imagery Actually Measures spectral bands explained
- Radiometric Levels Explained: DN, TOA and Surface Reflectance radiometric levels explained
- Sentinel-2 or Landsat? Choosing a Satellite Imagery Source sentinel 2 vs landsat explained
- Spectral Indices Explained: NDVI, NDWI and What They Assume spectral indices explained
- Cloud Masking Explained: QA Bands, Scene Classification and What They Miss cloud masking explained
- Vegetation indices explained: NDVI, EVI, NDRE and when each fails ndvi evi ndre compared
- Crop phenology and growing seasons explained crop phenology remote sensing
⚙️ Then do the task
Step-by-step walkthroughs with code you can copy and adapt.
- How to Load Sentinel-2 Bands into Python as an Analysis-Ready Array load sentinel2 bands python
- How to Resample Satellite Bands to a Common Grid resample satellite bands python
- How to Calculate NDVI from Sentinel-2 in Python calculate ndvi python
- How to Mask Clouds in Sentinel-2 Imagery with Python mask clouds sentinel2 python
- How to Build a Cloud-Free Composite from Many Satellite Scenes cloud free composite python
- How to Extract a Vegetation Index Time Series for a Polygon ndvi time series polygon python
- How to Detect Change Between Two Satellite Images in Python detect change satellite images python
- How to Classify Land Cover from Satellite Imagery in Python classify land cover python
- How to Turn a STAC Search into an xarray Data Cube stac to xarray cube python
- How to delineate field boundaries from imagery in Python delineate field boundaries python
- How to extract phenology metrics from an NDVI time series phenology metrics ndvi python
🔧 When it breaks
The errors this topic produces, with the cause explained rather than just the command.
- Satellite Bands Have Different Shapes or Do Not Align satellite bands do not align
- NDVI Values Are Above 1 or Below −1: How to Fix It ndvi values out of range
- My Composite Has Holes, Stripes or Grey Patches composite has holes or stripes
- NDVI stops responding in a dense canopy ndvi saturation dense canopy
Learning paths through this topic
A curated route rather than a list — the guides in the order that builds on itself.
Related topics
Subjects that keep coming up alongside this one, most overlap first.