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Full catalog/NISAR_L1_RUNW_BETA_V1
NISAR_L1_RUNW_BETA_V1·v1·dataset

Radar map of how the ground moved (NISAR, beta)

NISAR Beta Range Doppler Unwrapped Interferogram Product (Version 1)
land NASA ASF Level 1 active HDF5XMLYAMLPNG
In plain English

What it measures. A radar-based map of how the ground surface moved between two passes, showing the displacement as a smoothed, unwrapped pattern, along with quality and confidence layers.

How it's made. Built by NISAR's radar by comparing two snapshots of the same area, flattening out terrain effects, and correcting where possible for atmospheric interference.

How & where you'd use it. This is a beta product meant for getting familiar with the data, not scientific research; ground-motion mapping like this is used for tracking earthquakes, landslides, and subsidence once products are validated.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › GEOMORPHIC LANDFORMS/PROCESSESSOLID EARTH › TECTONICSAGRICULTURE › FOREST SCIENCECRYOSPHERE › SEA ICECRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETSCRYOSPHERE › FROZEN GROUND

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2025-10-01 → ongoing
  • Measured byNISAR (L-SAR, S-SAR)
  • Processing levelLevel 1
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsHDF5, XML, YAML, PNG, KML, CSV, PDF
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) Range Doppler Unwrapped Interferogram (RUNW) product represents the unwrapped, ellipsoid- and topography-flattened, multi-looked interferogram generated from two Level 1 Range Doppler Single Look Complex (RSLC) products in the earlier reference acquisition range-Doppler geometry. The RUNW product has a nominal posting of 80 meters on the ground, irrespective of the slant range bandwidth. The product contains raster layers representing single precision floating point unwrapped and normalized interferometric coherence magnitude. The product includes the connected component mask, a mask layer identifying invalid pixels (i.e., pixels affected by geometric distortions), and the slant range and along-track sub-pixel offsets obtained from incoherent cross-correlation (used to generate the complex wrapped interferogram). If a Range Doppler Pixel Offsets (ROFF) product is available for the processed frame, the sub-pixel offset layers included in RUNW are obtained by optimally blending the multi resolution offset layers included in ROFF. Look-up tables for parallel and perpendicular baseline components are also included. The RUNW product also contains an ionospheric phase screen layer and a layer quantifying its uncertainty. Where possible, the ionospheric phase screen is estimated from the two spectral bands frequency A and frequency B. In the case of mode transitions where the continuity of spectral bands is impacted, a split spectrum ionospheric phase estimate and an estimate of its standard deviation are derived from the main imaging band frequency A. The estimated ionospheric phase screen is included in the product but not applied to the data layers within RUNW by default. The products in this collection are considered Beta products and are intended to enable users to gain familiarity with the parameters and the data formats. Beta products are not intended for use in scientific research.

Get the data

nisar_l1_runw_beta_v1_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="NISAR_L1_RUNW_BETA_V1",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from ASF
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.