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Full catalog/sentinel-6-p4-1b-stc
sentinel-6-p4-1b-stc·dataset

Ocean radar measurements, medium-speed (Copernicus)

Sentinel-6 P4 Level 1B Short Time Critical (STC)
land ESA ESA Copernicus active
In plain English

What it measures. Contains calibrated radar data used to derive sea surface height, surface wind speed, and wave height over the oceans.

How it's made. From the Sentinel-6 radar altimeter at Level-1B, organized by pole-to-pole orbits and delivered within about 36 hours.

How & where you'd use it. Supports oceanographic modelling and data assimilation as a technical input; not meant for direct general reading.

What's measured

CopernicusSentinelEUESAEUMETSATSatelliteGlobalEarth

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2021-10-09 → ongoing
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90

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 Sentinel-6 P4 Level 1B Short Time Critical (STC) product provides intermediate-latency ocean surface data, including sea surface height, wind speed, and wave height. It is tailored for oceanographic modeling and data assimilation purposes. Data are organized by full satellite passes (pole-to-pole) and are typically delivered within 36 hours of acquisition. The product is provided in NetCDF format and ensures consistent quality for near-operational applications.

Get the data

copernicus_access.py
# ESA Copernicus Data Space — open STAC API (free account)
from pystac_client import Client

cat = Client.open("https://stac.dataspace.copernicus.eu/v1")
search = cat.search(
    collections=["sentinel-6-p4-1b-stc"],   # add _cog or _nc for a format variant
    bbox=(-10, 35, 30, 60),             # your area (W,S,E,N)
    datetime="2024-01-01/2024-12-31",
)
items = list(search.items())            # then read assets with rioxarray / xarray
Browsing the Copernicus STAC is open; downloading bytes needs a free Copernicus Data Space account.