Performance of Sentinel-2 data in unsupervised classification: a case study of statistical comparison with Landsat 8 OLI

Abstract

What to expect, when planning to use Sentinel-2 datasets in unsupervised classification? This is a very actual question, since Copernicus Sentinel-2 data has been available since November 2015, but due to the winter period conditions, wide use has been obstacled, user experiences are missing. In a European Space Agency (ESA) financed feasibility study we needed to simulate 2015 Sentinel-2 data input with Landsat 8 OLI data, and we were also curious, how this may affect the performance? In a case study we measured Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 OLI to Kompsat-3 very high resolution multispectral imagery in four sample sites and we used landscape indices to quantify the effect of utilized input data on spatial pattern.