Sentinel-2 current

A satellite image of Austria that updates every day: each pixel shows a robust value from the most recent cloud- and shadow-free Sentinel-2 acquisitions (rolling best-pixel composite). Resolution 10 m, Web Mercator, WebP, 512 px, z5 to z13 (the client overzooms beyond that). The acquisition date of every pixel is kept in the underlying store.

Use cases

Current backgroundSatellite view that is not years old

Seeing changeSnow cover, harvest, windthrow, construction sites on a 10 m grid

Overview and planningLandscape, vegetation and water at a glance

Add to your map

new maplibregl.Map({
  container: "map",
  center: [15.334, 48.227], zoom: 11,
  style: {
    version: 8,
    sources: { s2: { type: "raster", url: "https://tiles.mapx.at/v1/tiles/sentinel2.json", tileSize: 512 } },
    layers: [{ id: "s2", type: "raster", source: "s2" }]
  }
});

TileJSON provides zoom range, bounds and attribution. Send the token with every request: add the transformRequest from First map to the map options. The ready-made style satellit-aktuell (Sentinel-2 with roads and labels) is available at /v1/styles/satellit-aktuell.

L.tileLayer("https://tiles.mapx.at/v1/tiles/sentinel2/{z}/{x}/{y}.webp?access_token=YOUR_TOKEN", {
  tileSize: 512, zoomOffset: -1, minZoom: 5, maxNativeZoom: 13, maxZoom: 18, crossOrigin: true,
  attribution: "Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2026"
}).addTo(map);

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" https://tiles.mapx.at/v1/tiles/sentinel2.json
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" -o tile.webp https://tiles.mapx.at/v1/tiles/sentinel2/13/4444/2839.webp

The tileset is replaced daily (fixed tileset sentinel2, no versioned file name). The TileJSON states the date in the field mapx:stand (most recent ingested scene). PMTiles directly: https://tiles.mapx.at/sentinel2.pmtiles?access_token=YOUR_TOKEN (cached for 5 minutes).

TileJSON, zoom and update


TileJSON	`https://tiles.mapx.at/v1/tiles/sentinel2.json`
Tiles	`https://tiles.mapx.at/v1/tiles/sentinel2/{z}/{x}/{y}.webp`
Zoom	z5 to z13 (6.4 m per pixel at z13 on 47.5 degrees north; the source is 10 m)
Format	WebP, 512 px, Web Mercator
Coverage	Austria (tiles at the border extend abroad)
Update	daily at 02:00; new scenes are merged into the store, then the file is replaced atomically

Source and method

Source: Sentinel-2 L2A (surface reflectance) from ESA/Copernicus as Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF via Element84 Earth Search (STAC, AWS Open Data). Only bands B04, B03, B02 (10 m) and the scene classification SCL (20 m) are read, with HTTP range requests.
Mask: SCL classes 4 (vegetation), 5 (bare soil), 6 (water) and 11 (snow) are valid; clouds, shadows, cirrus, dark and unclassified pixels do not count. The mask is eroded by 40 m, and pixels with a very high blue share (haze) are dropped, except snow.
Robust value instead of latest value: each pixel keeps its last 5 valid observations. The output is a value of medium brightness among the observations of the 45 days before the most recent one; outliers (too blue, too bright, too dark) against the median are discarded. The image stays current while haze and thin clouds drop out.
Gaps: older observations fill pixels that were never clear recently; remaining holes are filled from neighbouring pixels.
Seams: each scene is brightness-matched to the stored data, and edges between acquisition days are blended softly.

Index and date overlays

Four further fixed tilesets are derived from the same composite. They are transparent where there is no value, so they work as overlays on sentinel2, a satellite image or a street map. All are WebP, 512 px, z5 to z13, same attribution; each is replaced daily together with sentinel2. They appear in /v1/tiles only once the file exists. The TileJSON carries the value range and colour ramp in mapx:legend.

Tileset	Shows	Value and colour
`sentinel2-datum`	Acquisition date per pixel	age in days before `mapx:stand`: 0 green, 20 yellow, 45 orange, 90 red, 180 dark red
`sentinel2-ndvi`	Vegetation, (NIR - red) / (NIR + red)	-0.1 grey, 0.05 bare, 0.2 sand, 0.4 light green, 0.85 dark green
`sentinel2-ndwi`	Water, (green - NIR) / (green + NIR)	only values above 0: light blue (0) to dark blue (0.7)
`sentinel2-ndsi`	Snow, (green - SWIR) / (green + SWIR)	only values from 0.4: light blue to white (0.8); water is excluded by a NIR threshold

map.addSource("ndvi", { type: "raster", url: "https://tiles.mapx.at/v1/tiles/sentinel2-ndvi.json", tileSize: 512 });
map.addLayer({ id: "ndvi", type: "raster", source: "ndvi", paint: { "raster-opacity": 0.8 } });

In the mapx viewer they are the overlays “Acquisition date”, “Vegetation (NDVI)”, “Water (NDWI)” and “Snow (NDSI)” in the layer group Satellite, with legend and opacity slider.

Notes

The image mixes several days (the date is stored per pixel); dense ground fog lasting weeks can remain despite the filter.
10 m source resolution: z13 is the last level with real gain in detail.

Attribution

Required under the Copernicus terms of use (free, full and open) for modified data:

Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2026

The year is the year of acquisition; MapLibre picks up the text from TileJSON or PMTiles. More: License.

Orthophoto Flight blocks