Method for simulating the estimation of a time to acquire satellite images associated with at least one predetermined area of the Earth , by at least one Earth observation satellite comprising an optical imaging system, the predetermined area being previously divided into a grid of cells, the acquisition being scheduled to be triggered starting on an analysis start date, characterized in that the method comprises the steps of: (a) selecting a plurality of cells of the grid which are planned to be overflown by the satellite on a current iteration date, based on the orbital characteristics of the satellite on the current iteration date, so as to obtain candidate cells, the current iteration date corresponding to a date around the analysis start date within the course of a year prior to the year associated with the analysis start date, (b) identifying among the candidate cells, based on a mission plan of the satellite, those for which acquisition of at least one satellite image is scheduled, thus obtaining scheduled cells, (c) obtaining at least a first cloudiness value for each of the scheduled cells, the first cloudiness value corresponding to a weather observation and/or forecast respectively observed on the current iteration date or predicted for the current iteration date, (d) identifying , among the scheduled cells, those for which the first associated cloudiness value is above a predetermined validation threshold value, thus obtaining validated cells, (e) repeating steps (a) to (d) one or more times until each of the cells of said grid is comprised in the validated cells, taking into consideration in each iteration the cells not identified as validated and a period following the current iteration date considered in the previous iteration, (f) determining the time to acquire satellite images, based on the number of iterations carried out in step (e). (a) selecting a plurality of cells of the grid which are planned to be overflown by the satellite on a current iteration date, based on the orbital characteristics of the satellite on the current iteration date, so as to obtain candidate cells, the current iteration date corresponding to a date around the analysis start date within the course of a year prior to the year associated with the analysis start date, (b) identifying among the candidate cells, based on a mission plan of the satellite, those for which acquisition of at least one satellite image is scheduled, thus obtaining scheduled cells, (c) obtaining at least a first cloudiness value for each of the scheduled cells, the first cloudiness value corresponding to a weather observation and/or forecast respectively observed on the current iteration date or predicted for the current iteration date, (d) identifying , among the scheduled cells, those for which the first associated cloudiness value is above a predetermined validation threshold value, thus obtaining validated cells, (e) repeating steps (a) to (d) one or more times until each of the cells of said grid is comprised in the validated cells, taking into consideration in each iteration the cells not identified as validated and a period following the current iteration date considered in the previous iteration, (f) determining the time to acquire satellite images, based on the number of iterations carried out in step (e). <EOS>