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

Raw radar that sees through clouds (Sentinel-1C)

Sentinel-1C Single Look Complex Product
deformation NASA ASF Level 1 active SAFE
In plain English

What it measures. Detailed radar images that work in darkness and see through clouds, keeping both the brightness and phase of the radar echo. They are stored in the radar's natural line-of-sight geometry rather than as a flat map.

How it's made. Captured by the C-band radar aboard Sentinel-1C (launched late 2024), focused into sharp imagery, then geo-referenced from the satellite's orbit and pointing and corrected for several signal distortions.

How & where you'd use it. Its preserved phase makes it the raw material for detecting ground movement from earthquakes, volcanoes and subsidence, and for tracking floods and ice. It is a specialist input typically used after additional processing.

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 1
  • 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 Single Look Complex (SLC) data products consist of focused SAR data, geo-referenced using orbit and attitude data from the satellite, and are provided in slant-range geometry. Slant range is the natural radar range observation coordinate, defined as the line-of-sight from the radar to each reflecting object. The products are in zero-Doppler orientation, where each row of pixels represents points along a line perpendicular to the sub-satellite track. The products include a single look in each dimension using the full available signal bandwidth and complex samples (real and imaginary) preserving the phase information. The products have been geo-referenced using the satellite’s orbit and attitude data and have been corrected for azimuth bi-static delay, elevation antenna pattern, and range spreading loss. The data products in this collection mirror the Sentinel-1C products provided through the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem.

Get the data

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

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