Earth observation

Copernicus schedules cutoff for Sentinel-5P cloud-support data

The November 2 cutoff affects auxiliary cloud information derived from Suomi NPP; the operational notice states that science-product data quality is unaffected.

27 October 2026 at 9:53 am ISTBy Science Desk2 min read

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Sentinel-5P carbon-monoxide observations averaged over August 9–11, 2026, in the ESA graphic “Carbon monoxide from fires in North America”. This is a science-product example, not the auxiliary cloud product scheduled to end. Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2026), processed by ESA. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/); reproduced unchanged.

2 Nov 2026scheduled auxiliary-product cutoff

13:00 UTCinput-data availability cutoff

Copernicus has scheduled the end of a Sentinel-5P cloud-support data stream for observations acquired after November 2, 2026, at 13:00 UTC. Its October 26 operational notice identifies the affected products as L2_NP*, which depend on input from the VIIRS instrument aboard the separate Suomi NPP satellite.

ESA’s SentiWiki documentation describes these as auxiliary products containing cloud information for each field of view of Sentinel-5P’s atmospheric instrument. They derive that information from VIIRS observations. The October 26 notice states that the discontinuation does not affect the data quality of Sentinel-5P Level-2 science products.

The change concerns an openly accessible international data resource. SentiWiki lists Sentinel-5P products as freely available through the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem. The service describes its users as institutions, researchers, commercial organisations and citizens worldwide.

An October 13 notice had already set out a ground-processing upgrade planned for November 10, including changes to cloud screening. The new notice adds an earlier, product-specific cutoff tied to the loss of Suomi NPP input.

According to the October 26 notice, work to remove the VIIRS dependency began with the November 2025 processing release and is due to be completed with the November 2026 release. That remains an announced processing change; the notice does not document its deployment.

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