Availability of Sentinel-1 Data
Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) DAAC
ASF maintains a complete archive of processed Sentinel-1 data, available within three days of acquisition. Registration is required, and terms and conditions apply.
European Space Agency (ESA)
Sentinel-1 data are available from ESA from a Rolling Archive that delivers data within 24 hours of acquisition and maintains recent months of data. Registration is required, and terms and conditions apply.
How to Download Sentinel-1 Data from ASF: Vertex (preferred), API, or Earthdata
Vertex
Vertex is the Alaska Satellite Facility’s data portal for remotely sensed imagery of Earth. The ASF Datapool offers SAR data products for immediate download.
ASF API Download Tool
The ASF Application Programming Interface (API) Download Tool facilitates the search for, visualization, and bulk delivery of ASF SAR images and metadata.
Earthdata
Users may discover and access Sentinel-1 data held at ASF through the NASA Earthdata Search tool.
Note:
Search results for Sentinel granules are bundled, so regardless of the processing level of the original search granule (RAW, SLC, GRD or OCN), all other related granules are shown as well. The search result list for any selected granule includes the ground range detected (GRD) product, because the associated GRD browse image, when available, provides the user with the most accurate information about the data coverage.
Sentinel-1 SAR Modes
Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B satellites carry C-band SAR instruments to provide an all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery of Earth’s entire surface every 6 days.
Extra Wide Swath (EW) | Interferometric Wide Swath (IW) | Stripmap (SM) | Wave (WV) |
Acquired with TOPSAR using 5 sub-swaths instead of 3, resulting in lower resolution (20m-x-40m). Intended for maritime, ice, and polar-zone services requiring wide coverage and short revisit times. | Acquired with TOPSAR. Default mode over land; 250km swath width; 5m-x-20m ground resolution. | Used in rare circumstances to support emergency-management services, 5m-x-5m resolution over an 80km swath width. | Default mode over oceans; VV polarization. Data acquired in 20km-x-20km vignettes, 5m-x-20m resolution, every 100km along the orbit. |
Naming Convention
The figure below illustrates the Sentinel-1 granule naming convention. For more information, see the Sentinel-1 Technical Guide. Additional resources are listed in Documents and Tools.

Orbit Files and Auxilliary Data Files
Notes:
- The Precise Orbit Determination (POD) service for Sentinel-1 provides orbit ephemerides files in the form of Precise Orbit Ephemerides files (available 20 days after data acquisition), Restituted Orbit files (available a few hours after data acquisition). Flight Operation Segment (FOS) Predicted Orbit files (available seven days prior to data acquisition), and Instrument Processing Facility (IPF) auxiliary files L1 Processor Parameters, L2 Processor Parameters, Instrument, Calibration, and Simulated Cross Spectra Auxiliary Data are also available.
- Users of these vectors may want to refer to the Sentinels POD Service File Format Specifications available on the Documents and Tools page.
Sentinel-1 Orbit Files at ASF
Sentinel-1 Orbit Files at ESA
ESA Sentinel-1 Quality Control page
Guide to File Names
IPF Auxiliary Data Files | |
---|---|
L1 Processor Parameters | aux_pp1 |
Calibration Auxiliary Data | aux_cal |
Instrument Auxiliary Data | aux_ins |
L2 Processor Parameters | aux_pp2 |
Simulated Cross Spectra Auxiliary Data | aux_scs |
Orbit Files | |
FOS Predicted Orbit | mpl_orbpre |
POD Precise Orbit Ephemerides | aux_poeorb |
POD Restituted Orbit | aux_resorb |
POD Restitude Attitude | aux_resatt |
Content on ASF’s Sentinel web pages is adapted from the European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel website.