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Full catalog/SENTINEL-1C_RAW
SENTINEL-1C_RAW·v1·dataset

Raw unprocessed radar signal data (Sentinel-1C)

Sentinel-1C Level 0 Product
deformation NASA ASF Level 0 active SAFE
In plain English

What it measures. The raw, unprocessed radar signal straight from the satellite — compressed instrument data packets that aren't yet usable as images.

How it's made. Recorded by the C-band radar on Europe's newest Sentinel-1C satellite (launched December 2024) as compressed source data, bundled with orbit and calibration information.

How & where you'd use it. A raw building block that must be decompressed and processed with focusing software before use; it's the starting point from which all the usable Sentinel-1C image products are made, not something used directly.

What's measured

SOLID EARTH › TECTONICSCRYOSPHERE › GLACIERS/ICE SHEETSLAND SURFACE › GEOMORPHIC LANDFORMS/PROCESSESSOLID EARTH › GEOMORPHIC LANDFORMS/PROCESSES

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2025-03-28 → ongoing
  • Measured bySentinel-1C (C-SAR)
  • Processing levelLevel 0
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsSAFE
  • StatusACTIVE

What you can do with it

  • Measure ground motion and subsidence (InSAR)
  • Track earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides
  • Map elevation and terrain change
Official description

The Sentinel-1C satellite was launched December 5, 2024. Sentinel-1C is the the latest satellite to be added to the Sentinel-1 constellation. The Sentinel-1 satellites (Sentinel-1A, Sentinel-1B, and Sentinel-1C) are sun-synchronous polar-orbiting satellites that operate day and night performing C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging. The Sentinel-1 satellites operate in four imaging modes with different resolutions (down to 5 meters) and coverage (up to 400 kilometers). The Sentinel-1 satellites provide dual polarization capability and short revisit times. Sentinel-1C Level 0 products consist of compressed and unprocessed instrument source packets, with additional annotations and auxiliary information to support processing. Level 0 products are the basis from which all other high level products are produced. They are compressed using Flexible Dynamic Block Adaptive Quantization (FDBAQ) which provides a variable bit rate coding that increases the number of bits allocated to bright scatterers. For the data to be usable, it will need to be decompressed and processed using focusing software. Level 0 data includes noise, internal calibration and echo source packets as well as orbit and attitude information. The data products in this collection mirror the Sentinel-1C products provided through the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem.

Get the data

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

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="SENTINEL-1C_RAW",
    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.