Sentinel‐2 in
PRODES
: Enhancing Cerrado Vegetation Suppression Mapping
Andrea D. Scheide, Taise F. Pinheiro, Magog A. de Carvalho, Vagner Luis Camilotti, Izaias de Souza Silva, Luciana de S. Soler, João Felipe S. K. C. Pinto, Marcos Adami, Marcelo F. Sestini, Sérgio L. Dousseau, Thayse A. Moreira, Danilo R. Pettinati, Jacqueline O. Santos, Sandra B. dos Santos, Claudio A. de Almeida, Luis Eduardo P. Maurano ABSTRACT
The PRODES Cerrado system provides annual mapping of native vegetation suppression for Brazil's tropical savanna but has historically relied on 30 m Landsat imagery without systematically assessing higher‐resolution alternatives. This reliance may limit the detection of small or early‐stage clearings, particularly in heterogeneous and cloud‐prone regions. To address this, we compared Landsat‐8/OLI and Sentinel‐2/MSI imagery under three configurations—single‐date Landsat‐8, single‐date Sentinel‐2, and 16‐day Sentinel‐2 mosaics (Brazil Data Cube)—within the PRODES framework. Results indicate that vegetation structure interacts with spatial resolution, deforestation dynamics, and temporal variability to influence detectability. Among all tested configurations, the 16‐day Sentinel‐2 mosaics achieved the best balance between spatial detail and temporal coverage, supporting its operational adoption by PRODES Cerrado for consistent, large‐scale vegetation suppression mapping.