Sentinel-1A Level 0: Raw C-Band SAR Satellite Data

Sentinel-1A Level 0 products are the unprocessed, compressed instrument source packets from the first satellite in the Sentinel-1 constellation, launched on April 3, 2014. The data includes noise, calibration, echo packets, and orbit information, forming the basis for all higher-level synthetic aperture radar products. This collection mirrors the data provided through the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem.

Use Cases

• Developing custom SAR processing algorithms based on the raw instrument source packets.
• Analyzing radar instrument performance and calibration using the included noise and internal calibration data.
• Generating focused SAR imagery for specific applications by processing the Level 0 data with focusing software.
• Studying satellite orbit and attitude dynamics using the auxiliary information provided.

Strengths

• Provides the foundational raw data from a major Earth observation satellite constellation.
• Uses Flexible Dynamic Block Adaptive Quantization (FDBAQ) compression to optimize bit allocation for bright scatterers.
• Supports four imaging modes with resolutions down to 5 meters and coverage up to 400 kilometers.
• Offers dual polarization capability and short revisit times for frequent monitoring.

Limitations

• Data is compressed and unprocessed, requiring decompression and specialized focusing software to be usable.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite, mirrored via the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem.

Collection Method

Satellite-based C-band synthetic aperture radar imaging.

Time Range

Data collection began after the satellite's launch on April 3, 2014.

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

Global coverage from a sun-synchronous polar orbit.