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Full catalog/RSAT-1_L1
RSAT-1_L1·v1·dataset

Raw radar that sees through clouds (RADARSAT-1)

RADARSAT-1 Level 1 Product
land NASA ASF Level 1
In plain English

What it measures. Radar images of Earth's surface that work day or night and see through clouds, shown as amplitude pictures laid out in fixed geographic frames.

How it's made. Created from the RADARSAT-1 satellite's synthetic aperture radar, processed into amplitude images at an early stage of the processing chain.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for mapping land, ice, and water regardless of weather or daylight; as a low-level product it often feeds further analysis rather than being read off directly.

What's measured

AGRICULTURE › FOREST SCIENCE › REFORESTATIONBIOSPHERE › ECOSYSTEMS › TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMSCRYOSPHERE › FROZEN GROUND › PERMAFROSTCRYOSPHERE › FROZEN GROUND › ROCK GLACIERSCRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › GLACIER ELEVATION/ICE SHEET ELEVATIONCRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › GLACIER MOTION/ICE SHEET MOTIONCRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › GLACIER THICKNESS/ICE SHEET THICKNESSCRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › GLACIER TOPOGRAPHY/ICE SHEET TOPOGRAPHYCRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › GLACIERSCRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › ICE SHEETSCRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS › ICEBERGSCRYOSPHERE › SEA ICE › ICE DEFORMATIONCRYOSPHERE › SEA ICE › ICE DEPTH/THICKNESSCRYOSPHERE › SEA ICE › ICE EDGES

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1996-02-01 → 2009-03-17
  • Measured byRADARSAT-1 (SAR)
  • Processing levelLevel 1
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • StatusCOMPLETE

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

RADARSAT-1 SAR data processed to amplitude images using fixed frames defined by latitude and longitude for the globe.

Get the data

rsat-1_l1_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="RSAT-1_L1",
    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.