This document explains the fields of the Synthetic-Aperture Radar (SAR) Extension to the SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) specification.
SAR data is considered to be data that represents a snapshot of the earth for a single date and time taken by a synthetic-aperture radar system such as Sentinel-1, RADARSAT or EnviSAT.
If the data has been collected by a satellite, it is strongly recommended to use the
sat extension.
If the data has been collected on an airborne platform it is strongly recommended to use the
Instrument Fields.
To describe frame start and end times, use the Date and Time Range fields.
| Field Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| sar:instrument_mode | string | REQUIRED. The name of the sensor acquisition mode that is commonly used. This should be the short name, if available. For example, WV for "Wave mode" of Sentinel-1 and Envisat ASAR satellites. |
| sar:frequency_band | string | REQUIRED. The common name for the frequency band to make it easier to search for bands across instruments. See section "Common Frequency Band Names" for a list of accepted names. |
| sar:center_frequency | number | The center frequency of the instrument, in gigahertz (GHz). |
| sar:polarizations | [string] | REQUIRED. Any combination of polarizations. |
| sar:product_type | string | DEPRECATED in favor of product:type. The product type, for example SSC, MGD, or SGC |
| sar:resolution_range | number | The range resolution, which is the maximum ability to distinguish two adjacent targets perpendicular to the flight path, in meters (m). |
| sar:resolution_azimuth | number | The azimuth resolution, which is the maximum ability to distinguish two adjacent targets parallel to the flight path, in meters (m). |
| sar:pixel_spacing_range | number | The range pixel spacing, which is the distance between adjacent pixels perpendicular to the flight path, in meters (m). Strongly RECOMMENDED to be specified for products of type GRD. |
| sar:pixel_spacing_azimuth | number | The azimuth pixel spacing, which is the distance between adjacent pixels parallel to the flight path, in meters (m). Strongly RECOMMENDED to be specified for products of type GRD. |
| sar:looks_range | number | Number of range looks, which is the number of groups of signal samples (looks) perpendicular to the flight path. |
| sar:looks_azimuth | number | Number of azimuth looks, which is the number of groups of signal samples (looks) parallel to the flight path. |
| sar:looks_equivalent_number | number | The equivalent number of looks (ENL). |
| sar:observation_direction | string | Antenna pointing direction relative to the flight trajectory of the satellite, either left or right. |
| sar:relative_burst | number | Identification number that uniquely identifies a burst cycle within each repeat cycle. |
| sar:beam_ids | [string] | Composition of the swath of the SAR acquision referencing the beam identifiers. |
Note: In this specification range values are meant to be measured perpendicular to the flight path and azimuth values are meant to be measured parallel to the flight path.
Specifies a single polarization or a polarization combination. For single polarized radars one of
HH, VV, HV or VH must be set. Fully polarimetric radars add all four polarizations to the array.
Dual polarized radars and alternating polarization add the corresponding polarizations to the array,
for instance for HH+HV add both HH and HV.
Important: In the properties of a STAC Item sar:polarizations must be a set with unique elements.
In assets sar:polarizations can contain duplicate elements and, if possible, the polarizations must appear in the same order as in the file.
The sar:beam_ids field is used to reference the beam identifiers of the SAR acquisition. According to the mission and the sensor mode,
the beam identifiers can be used to identify the composition of the swath of the SAR acquisition.
The beam identifiers are usually provided in the metadata of the SAR data.
The sar:frequency_band is the name that is commonly used to refer to that band's spectral
properties. The table below shows the common name based on the wavelength and frequency ranges for several SAR satellites.
| Common Name | Wavelength Range (cm) | Frequency Range (GHz) | Satellites |
|---|---|---|---|
| P | 30 - 120 | 0.25 - 1 | |
| L | 15 - 30 | 1 - 2 | ALOS, JERS, NISAR, SOACOM |
| S | 7.5 - 15 | 2 - 4 | HJ-1C |
| C | 3.8 - 7.5 | 4 - 8 | EnviSat, ERS, Radarsat, Risat-1, Sentinel-1 |
| X | 2.4 - 3.8 | 8 - 12.5 | Cosmo-SkyMed, TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X, PAZ, KOMPSat-5 |
| Ku | 1.7 - 2.4 | 12.5 - 18 | |
| K | 1.1 - 1.7 | 18 - 26.5 | |
| Ka | 0.75 - 1.1 | 26.5 - 40 |
The product type for SAR data defines the type of processed data contained in the assets.
A list of suggestions for product:type include:
| product:type | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| SSC | complex | Single-look Slant-range Complex image (standard SLC) |
| MGD | amplitude | Multilooked Ground-range Detected image |
| GRD | amplitude | Multilooked Ground-range Detected image (used by Sentinel-1) |
| GEC | amplitude | Geocoded Ellipsoid Corrected image |
| GTC | amplitude | Geocoded Terrain Corrected image |
| RTC | amplitude | Geocoded Radiometrically Terrain Corrected image |
| SGC | complex | Single-look Ground projected Complex image |
| SLC | complex | Single-look Ground projected Complex image (used by Sentinel-1) |
This can vary by data provider, who all may use slightly different names.
Sentinel-1 for instance uses GRD, which is the same as the more general MGD and SLC instead of SGC.
Note:
sar:product_type.sar:product_type and it's not required any longer, but product:type is strongly recommended.product:type as part of this extension and remove sar:product_type.In SAR, you usually have frame start and end time. To describe this information it is recommended to use the Date and Time Range fields.
The center time of the frame should be specified with the datetime property for STAC Items.
One of the emerging best practices is to use Asset Roles to provide clients with more information about the assets in an item. The following list includes a shared vocabulary for some common SAR assets. This list should not be considered definitive, and implementors are welcome to use other asset roles. If consensus and tooling consolidates around these role names then they will be specified in the future as more standard than just 'best practices'.
| Role Name | Description |
|---|---|
| local-incidence-angle | Points to the local incidence angle file. |
| ellipsoid-incidence-angle | Points to the ellipsoid incidence angle file. |
| noise-power | Points to the noise power file. |
| amplitude | Points to the intensity file with focused SAR data that has been ground range detected (e.g. GRD). |
| magnitude | Points to the intensity file where data are represented as complex numbers containing amplitude and phase information (e.g SLC). |
| sigma0 | Points to the radar backscatter file where data is referenced in ground surface. It is often derived from an amplitude or a magnitude role asset. |
| beta0 | Points to the radar backscatter file where data is referenced in the slant range plane and is radiometrically calibrated. It is often derived from an amplitude or a magnitude role asset. |
| gamma0 | Points to the radar backscatter file where data is referenced in the plane perpendicular to the line of sight. It is often derived from an amplitude or a magnitude role asset. |
| date-offset | Points to the date-offset file. |
| covmat | Points to the Points to the Normalized Polarimetric Radar Covariance Matrix (CovMat) file. |
| prd | Points to the Polarimetric Radar Decomposition (PRD) file. |
All contributions are subject to the STAC Specification Code of Conduct. For contributions, please follow the STAC specification contributing guide Instructions for running tests are copied here for convenience.
The same checks that run as checks on PR's are part of the repository and can be run locally to verify that changes are valid.
To run tests locally, you'll need npm, which is a standard part of any node.js installation.
First you'll need to install everything with npm once. Just navigate to the root of this repository and on your command line run:
npm installThen to check markdown formatting and test the examples against the JSON schema, you can run:
npm testThis will spit out the same texts that you see online, and you can then go and fix your markdown or examples.
If the tests reveal formatting problems with the examples, you can fix them with:
npm run format-examples