Description

ASF offers derived burst-based products for Sentinel-1 single look complex (SLC) data collected via the Interferometric Wide (IW) mode and Extra-Wide Swath (EW) modes*. These products are particularly useful for scientists interested in obtaining data for small geographic areas and workflows requiring precise alignment of co-geolocated SLC data through time (i.e., time series analyses). For more information on the Sentinel-1 mission, see ASF’s Sentinel-1 dataset page. Content on the ASF web page is adapted from the ESA Sentinel-1 website. Sentinel-1 data, including burst data, are provided under NASA’s provision of the ESA Sentinel-1 data archive through ASF.

Sentinel-1 Interferometric Wide (IW) mode and Extra-Wide Swath (EW) mode single look complex (SLC) data are collected using a form of ScanSAR imaging called Terrain Observation with Progressive Scans SAR (TOPSAR). In these modes, data is collected by cyclically observing, then switching the antenna beam between multiple adjacent sub-swaths. Within each observation of a sub-swath, a short sequence of radar pulses are transmitted in rapid succession, imaging a contiguous portion of the target surface. These short sequences of radar pulses are called “bursts”, and are the fundamental unit of SLC data collected using the TOPSAR technique.

Data from many bursts are packaged together to create the standard Sentinel-1 IW and EW SLC products. These products are produced by creating sub-swath images that contain a series of overlapping bursts, where each burst has been processed as a separate SLC image. Sub-swath images from all available swaths (three swaths for IW mode and five swaths for EW mode) are packaged together to create the final SLC products. While data from many bursts are packaged together in the standard SLC products, SLC data from a single burst can be utilized independently.

To enable single-burst applications, ASF has developed an extraction service that allows users to download single-burst IW and EW SLC products. The burst SLC data are available as a GeoTIFF and supplemental metadata files from the parent SLC product are available as a single XML file.

Dataset Property	Interferometric Wide Beam Mode	Extra-Wide Beam Mode
Temporal Coverage	12 Days	12 Days
Spatial Coverage	Global	Global
Center Frequency	C-band at 5.405 GHz	C-band at 5.405 GHz
Polarization	Single Polarization (HH or VV) Dual Polarization (HH+HV or VV+VH)	Single Polarization (HH or VV) Dual Polarization (HH+HV or VV+VH)
Spatial Resolution	5 x 20 m	20 x 40 m
Swath Width	85 km	85 km
Off-Nadir Angle	29.1° to 46.0°	18.9° to 47.0°
File format	GeoTIFF	GeoTIFF
Provider	European Space Agency	European Space Agency
Date published:	June 2023	June 2023

Links in the table below open to ESA’s website for more information.

SAR Mode	Interferometric Wide Swath (IW)	Extra Wide Swath (EW)
Details	Acquired with TOPSAR. Default mode over land; 250km swath width; 5m-x-20m ground resolution.	Acquired with TOPSAR using 5 sub-swaths instead of 3, resulting in lower resolution (20m-x-40m). Intended for maritime, ice, and polar-zone services requiring wide coverage and short revisit times.

Product Summary

Platforms

Sentinel-1A

Sentinel-1B

Instruments

Sentinel-1 C-SAR

Spatial Extent

90.0°, -180.0°, -90.0°, 180.0°

Geographic Region

Global

Temporal Extent

12 Days

Data Partner

European Space Agency (ESA)

Citation

Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use Policy.

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Data Center Citation

Sentinel-1 Bursts Data

Crediting Sentinel-1 Bursts Data

Credit use of datasets in publications such as journal papers, articles, presentations, posters, and websites. For more information, see Terms and Conditions. Please send copies of, or links to, published works citing data, imagery, or tools accessed through ASF to uso@asf.alaska.edu with “New Publication” on subject line.

Type	Format	Example
Primary Data	Copernicus Sentinel data [year of data acquisition]. Retrieved from ASF DAAC [day month year of data access], processed by ESA.	Copernicus Sentinel data [year of data acquisition]. Retrieved from ASF DAAC [day month year of data access], processed by ESA.
Modified Data	[creator credit, year created], contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [year of data acquisition], processed by ESA.	ASF DAAC 2015, contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2015, processed by ESA.

Crediting Sentinel-1 Imagery

Include appropriate credit with each image shown in publications such as journal papers, articles, presentations, posters, and websites.

Type	Format	Example
Primary Data	Copernicus Sentinel data [year of data acquisition], processed by ESA.	Copernicus Sentinel data 2015, processed by ESA.
Modified Data	[creator credit, year created], contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [year of data acquisition], processed by ESA.	ASF DAAC 2015, contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2015, processed by ESA.

Additional Citation

Sentinel legal notice with Terms and Conditions

European Space Agency Legal Notice on the Use of Copernicus Sentinel Data and Service Information

The access and use of Copernicus Sentinel Data and Service Information is regulated under EU law.¹ In particular, the law provides that users shall have a free, full and open access to Copernicus Sentinel Data² and Service Information without any express or implied warranty, including as regards quality and suitability for any purpose.³

EU law grants free access to Copernicus Sentinel Data and Service Information for the purpose of the following use in so far as it is lawful⁴ :

(a) reproduction;

(b) distribution;

(c) communication to the public;

(d) adaptation, modification and combination with other data and information;

(e) any combination of points (a) to (d).

EU law allows for specific limitations of access and use in the rare cases of security concerns, protection of third party rights or risk of service disruption.

By using Sentinel Data or Service Information the user acknowledges that these conditions are applicable to him/her and that the user renounces to any claims for damages against the European Union and the providers of the said Data and Information. The scope of this waiver encompasses any dispute, including contracts and torts claims, that might be filed in court, in arbitration or in any other form of dispute settlement.

Where the user communicates to the public or distributes Copernicus Sentinel Data and Service Information, he/she shall inform the recipients of the source of that Data and Information by using the following notice⁵ :

‘Copernicus Sentinel data [Year]’ for Sentinel data; and/or
‘Copernicus Service information [Year]’ for Copernicus Service Information.

Where the Copernicus Sentinel Data and Service Information have been adapted or modified, the user shall provide the following notice:

‘Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [Year]’ for Sentinel data; and/or
‘Contains modified Copernicus Service information [Year]’ for Copernicus Service Information.

The users’ rights on their personal data are protected under European law⁶. Such data will only be used by the European Commission and the providers of the said Data and Information for providing services to the user and for statistical as well as evaluation purposes.

¹ Regulation (EU) No 377/2014 and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1159/2013.
² In agreement with the Copernicus Sentinel Data Policy, ESA/PB-EO(2013)30, rev. 1.
³ See in particular Art. 3 and 9 of Regulation 1159/2013.
⁴ See in particular Art. 7 of Regulation 1159/2013.
⁵ See in particular Art. 8 of Regulation 1159/2013.
⁶ Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data; Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data.

Strengths and Limitations

Single-burst SLC datasets are virtual datasets, meaning that they are not extracted until a user requests them. For developers wishing to interact directly with the extractor application program interface (API) that is responsible for creating these datasets, documentation on the extractor API can be found at https://sentinel1-burst-documentation.asf.alaska.edu.

Known Issues

Image Quality

Users of Sentinel data may see quality issues similar to ones noted in the User Guide. Users are encouraged to submit examples of image-quality issues to uso@asf.alaska.edu.

Sentinel-1 Bursts

Data at a Glance