Cloud and cloud shadow masking for Sentinel-2 using multitemporal images in global area

Sentinel-2 data provided the opportunity for complementary data to existing missions including Landsat and SPOT. In this study, multitemporal cloud masking (MCM) used to detect cloud and cloud shadow masking for Landsat 8 was improved to detect cloud and cloud shadow for Sentinel-2 data. This improvement takes advantages of the spectral similarity between Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2. To assess the reliability of the new MCM algorithm, several data selected from different environments such as sub-tropical South, tropical, and sub-tropical North were evaluated. Moreover, these data have heterogeneous land cover and variety of cloud types. In visual assessment, the algorithm can detect cloud and cloud shadow accurately. In the statistical assessment, the user's and producer's accuracies of sample in sub-tropical environments of cloud masking was 99% and 96%, respectively, and cloud shadow masking was 99% and 98%, respectively. In addition, the user's and producer's accuracies of sample in tropical environments of cloud masking was 100% and 95%, respectively, and cloud shadow masking was 100% and 92%, respectively. Compared to Fmask, MCM has higher accuracies in most of the results of cloud and cloud shadow masking in both sub-tropical and tropical environments. The results showed that the improved-MCM algorithm can detect cloud and cloud shadow for Sentinel-2 data accurately in all scenarios and the accuracies are significantly high.