PAZ Satellite Radar Imagery with Multiple Acquisition Modes

PAZ Level 1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from ESA-supported projects provides imagery in six distinct acquisition modes, including Staring Spotlight with 25cm resolution. The European Space Agency (ESA) archives this collection, which grows as new products are collected globally over various time windows. Data is available in four geometric projections, from Single Look Slant Range Complex to Enhanced Ellipsoid Corrected.

Use Cases

• Train models for land cover classification using multi-polarization data from Stripmap (SM) and Spotlight (SL) modes.
• Develop change detection algorithms by comparing Geocoded Ellipsoid Corrected (GEC) products from different time windows over the same area.
• Analyze urban infrastructure with high-resolution features from Staring Spotlight (ST) mode imagery offering 25cm spatial resolution.
• Perform large-scale terrain analysis using Wide ScanSAR (WS) mode data covering 270 x 200 km2 scenes.
• Correct for topographic distortion in SAR analysis by utilizing the terrain height corrections in Enhanced Ellipsoid Corrected (EEC) products.

Strengths

• Offers six acquisition modes with resolutions from 25cm (Staring Spotlight) to less than 40m (Wide ScanSAR).
• Provides data in four geometric processing levels (SSC, MGD, GEC, EEC) for different analytical needs.
• Collection is actively maintained and grows as ESA collects new products over the years.

Limitations

• Spatial and temporal coverage is scattered and dispersed worldwide, not providing continuous global coverage.
• Specific row counts, total size, and precise temporal range for the archive are not documented.
• Some modes like ScanSAR (SC) and Staring Spotlight (ST) are available in single polarization only, limiting multi-polarization analysis for those scenes.

Provenance

Source

European Space Agency (ESA)

Collection Method

Archived from PAZ satellite Level 1 data previously requested by ESA-supported projects.

Time Range

null

Freshness

null

Geography

Global, but scattered over areas of interest for specific projects.