AWS CLI Quick Reference¶

Directly browse and download Copernicus Sentinel-2 data via S3 using AWS CLI.

Setup¶

1. Install AWS CLI¶

macOS

brew install awscli
aws --version

Linux

sudo apt-get install awscli
aws --version

Windows

choco install awscli
aws --version

2. Configure Credentials¶

aws configure --profile copernicus

When prompted, enter: - AWS Access Key ID: Your S3 access key (from Copernicus Dataspace) - AWS Secret Access Key: Your S3 secret key - Default region: Leave blank or use default - Default output format: json

3. Configure the Custom Endpoint (IMPORTANT)¶

Copernicus uses a custom S3-compatible endpoint that requires explicit configuration.

Environment Variable (Recommended):

export COPERNICUS_ENDPOINT="https://eodata.dataspace.copernicus.eu"

Make it permanent by adding to ~/.zshrc (or ~/.bashrc):

echo 'export COPERNICUS_ENDPOINT="https://eodata.dataspace.copernicus.eu"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Or configure in AWS Config file:

Edit ~/.aws/config and add the endpoint to your copernicus profile:

[profile copernicus]
region = default
s3 =
    endpoint_url = https://eodata.dataspace.copernicus.eu
    signature_version = s3v4

Note: AWS CLI's aws s3 commands don't automatically use the endpoint from the config file, so you'll need to add --endpoint-url $COPERNICUS_ENDPOINT to each command (see examples below).

Common Commands¶

List Buckets¶

aws s3 ls --profile copernicus --endpoint-url $COPERNICUS_ENDPOINT

Output:

2024-01-01 00:00:00 eodata

Browse Available Product Levels¶

First, check the available processing levels and versions:

aws s3 ls s3://eodata/Sentinel-2/MSI/ \
  --profile copernicus \
  --endpoint-url $COPERNICUS_ENDPOINT

This shows available product levels and versions: - L1C/ - Raw L1C data (older processing) - L1C_N0500/ - Raw L1C data (latest processing) ⭐ - L2A/ - Processed L2A data (older processing) - L2A_N0400/ - Processed L2A data (intermediate processing) - L2A_N0500/ - Processed L2A data (latest processing) ⭐

Note: The _N0500 versions contain the latest reprocessed products and are recommended for most use cases (used by vresto by default).

Browse by Date¶

List products from a specific date (using L2A_N0500 as example):

aws s3 ls s3://eodata/Sentinel-2/MSI/L2A_N0500/2024/11/20/ \
  --profile copernicus \
  --endpoint-url $COPERNICUS_ENDPOINT

Navigate the hierarchy: - s3://eodata/Sentinel-2/MSI/L1C_N0500/YYYY/MM/DD/ - Raw L1C data (latest) - s3://eodata/Sentinel-2/MSI/L2A_N0500/YYYY/MM/DD/ - Processed L2A data (latest)

Download a Product¶

List files at a specific image resolution directory (using the latest _N0500 version):

aws s3 ls s3://eodata/Sentinel-2/MSI/L2A_N0500/2020/01/01/S2B_MSIL2A_20200101T234739_N0500_R130_T57MUM_20230425T005858.SAFE/GRANULE/L2A_T57MUM_A014742_20200101T234736/IMG_DATA/R60m/ \
  --profile copernicus \
  --endpoint-url $COPERNICUS_ENDPOINT

Output:

2023-10-25 12:42:54      51799 T57MUM_20200101T234739_AOT_60m.jp2
2023-10-25 12:42:54    1316139 T57MUM_20200101T234739_B01_60m.jp2
2023-10-25 12:42:54    1436599 T57MUM_20200101T234739_B02_60m.jp2
2023-10-25 12:42:54    1421840 T57MUM_20200101T234739_B03_60m.jp2
2023-10-25 12:42:54    1409459 T57MUM_20200101T234739_B04_60m.jp2
2023-10-25 12:42:54    1449715 T57MUM_20200101T234739_B05_60m.jp2
2023-10-25 12:42:55    1429981 T57MUM_20200101T234739_B06_60m.jp2
2023-10-25 12:42:55    1421915 T57MUM_20200101T234739_B07_60m.jp2
2023-10-25 12:42:53    1415903 T57MUM_20200101T234739_B09_60m.jp2
2023-10-25 12:42:53    1360282 T57MUM_20200101T234739_B11_60m.jp2
2023-10-25 12:42:53    1381005 T57MUM_20200101T234739_B12_60m.jp2
2023-10-25 12:42:56    1416344 T57MUM_20200101T234739_B8A_60m.jp2
2023-10-25 12:42:54     172926 T57MUM_20200101T234739_SCL_60m.jp2
2023-10-25 12:42:54    1448976 T57MUM_20200101T234739_TCI_60m.jp2
2023-10-25 12:42:54      54170 T57MUM_20200101T234739_WVP_60m.jp2

Once you've identified the files you need, use aws s3 cp with the --recursive flag to download them.

Advanced Usage¶

Batch Download Script¶

Create download_sentinel.sh:

#!/bin/bash

ENDPOINT="https://eodata.dataspace.copernicus.eu"
PROFILE="copernicus"
OUTPUT_DIR="./downloads"

# Search for all L2A products from a specific date
YEAR=2024
MONTH=11
DAY=20

aws s3 ls "s3://eodata/Sentinel-2/MSI/L2A/$YEAR/$MONTH/$DAY/" \
  --profile $PROFILE \
  --endpoint-url $ENDPOINT | \
  awk '{print $NF}' | \
  while read PRODUCT; do
    if [ ! -z "$PRODUCT" ]; then
      echo "Downloading: $PRODUCT"
      aws s3 cp \
        "s3://eodata/Sentinel-2/MSI/L2A/$YEAR/$MONTH/$DAY/$PRODUCT" \
        "$OUTPUT_DIR/$PRODUCT" \
        --recursive \
        --profile $PROFILE \
        --endpoint-url $ENDPOINT
    fi
  done

Run:

chmod +x download_sentinel.sh
./download_sentinel.sh

Find Low Cloud Cover Products¶

# List all products and check metadata
for PRODUCT in $(aws s3 ls s3://eodata/Sentinel-2/MSI/L2A/2024/11/20/ \
  --profile copernicus --endpoint-url $COPERNICUS_ENDPOINT | \
  awk '{print $NF}' | grep -o "S2.*SAFE"); do

  echo "Checking: $PRODUCT"
  # Download metadata to check cloud cover
done

Troubleshooting¶

"Unable to locate credentials"¶

Check your AWS configuration:

aws configure list --profile copernicus

Should show your access key and credentials.

"Access Denied"¶

Verify S3 credentials are correct
Check your Copernicus Dataspace S3 permissions
Ensure you have the correct endpoint URL

"NoSuchKey" Error¶

The product path doesn't exist. Check: - Date is correct (YYYY/MM/DD format) - Product exists in that date range - Product level (L1C vs L2A) is correct

Slow Downloads¶

Use --no-progress flag to reduce overhead
Download specific files instead of entire products
Check your internet connection speed

Product Structure¶

Each Sentinel-2 product contains:

S2A_MSIL2A_20241120T103321_N0510_R131_T32UPE_20241120T110130.SAFE/
├── GRANULE/
│   └── L2A_T32UPE_A042706_20241120T104457_N0510_R131_T32UPE_20241120T110130_MTL.xml
├── INSPIRE.xml
├── MTD_MSIL2A.xml
├── manifest.safe
└── rep_info/

# Key files:
# - TCI_10m.jp2   : RGB preview (10m resolution)
# - B02_10m.jp2   : Blue band (10m)
# - B03_10m.jp2   : Green band (10m)
# - B04_10m.jp2   : Red band (10m)

Next Steps¶

API Reference - Programmatic access
Web Interface Guide - Visual search
Setup Guide - Configuration