OPERA
Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis (OPERA)
The OPERA project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was created to address high-priority requests from the NASA Satellite Needs Working Group and its partners for products generated from space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical sensors. Three products were identified:
- Near-global* Dynamic Surface Water Extent products
- Near-global Surface Disturbance products
- North America* Surface Displacement products
“Near-global” corresponds to all landmasses excluding Antarctica. “North America *” corresponds to the United States and U.S. Territories, Canada within 200 km of the U.S. border, and all mainland countries from the southern U.S. border up to and including Panama.
Overview
Level-3 SAR and Optical data products
Near-global Dynamic Surface Water eXtent (DSWx) product suite
- Utilizes Sentinel-1 SAR/ NISAR (products available in a future release) and Harmonized Landsat-8 / Sentinel-2 optical data
- Products available through the Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC)
Near-global Surface Disturbance (DIST) product suite
- Utilizes Sentinel-1 SAR and Harmonized Landsat-8/9 and Sentinel-2 optical data
- Products available through the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC)
North America Surface Displacement (DISP) product suite
- Utilizes Sentinel-1 and NISAR Interferometric SAR data (products available in a future release)
- Products will be available through the Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center (ASF DAAC)
Level-2 SAR data products
- Near-global land surface Radiometric Terrain Corrected (RTC) SAR backscatter product
- Near-global land surface Radiometric Terrain Corrected (RTC) SAR backscatter static layers product
- North America Coregistered Single-Look Complex (CSLC) product
- North America Coregistered Single-Look Complex (CSLC) static layers product
All Level-2 OPERA data products are distributed by the ASF DAAC
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User Guides and Technical Documentation
CSLC-S1: Product Specification Document, Static Product Specification Guide, Sample Product, and Interactive Guides
CSLC-S1 Product Specification Document
- The CSLC-S1 Product Specification document describes the specifications of the OPERA Level-2 Coregistered Single-Look Complex (CSLC) product that uses Sentinel-1 SLC products as the primary image-based input. Accordingly, this data product is referred to by the short name CSLC-S1.
CSLC-S1-STATIC Product Specification Document
- The CSLC-S1-Static Product Specification document describes the specifications of the OPERA Level-2 Radiometric Terrain-Corrected SAR Backscatter from Sentinel-1 (CSLC-S1) Static Layers (CSLC-S1-STATIC) product. It is distributed separately from the CSLC-S1 products, and it is only produced once (or a limited amount of times) for CSLC-S1 products characterized by the same burst identification string, i.e., for all the Sentinel-1 bursts covering the same geographical area on the ground. The CSLC-S1-STATIC contains both data raster layers (e.g., geocoded geometry layers) and product metadata.
Interactive Guides
- Visualization Guide — Illustrates how users can manipulate products in the open-source QGIS software
- Jupyter Notebook Tutorials — Introductory guides written in a Jupyter Notebook environment that showcases select applications
- Tutorial 1: How to generate interferograms (without having to download OPERA CSLC-S1 products locally). This example is for the Ridgecrest Earthquake, California, USA, from July 2019.
CSLC-NI: Product Specification Document, Static Product Specification Guide, Sample Product, and Interactive Guides
Note: NISAR is scheduled to be launched in 2024
RTC-S1: Product Specification Document, Static Product Specification Document, Sample Product, and Interactive Guides
RTC-S1 Product Specification Document
- The RTC-S1 Product Specification document describes the specifications of the OPERA Level-2 Radiometric Terrain-Corrected (RTC) product that uses Sentinel-1 SLC data as the primary image-based input.
RTC-S1-STATIC Product Specification Document
- The RTC-S1-Static Product Specification document describes the specifications of the OPERA Level-2 Radiometric Terrain-Corrected SAR Backscatter from Sentinel-1 (RTC-S1) Static Layers (RTC-S1-STATIC) product. The RTC-S1-STATIC product provides radar geometry layers, such as local incidence angle or incidence angle, that describe the Sentinel-1 acquisition geometry associated with the OPERA RTC-S1 products with the same burst ID.
Interactive Guides
- Jupyter Notebook Tutorials — Introductory guides written in a Jupyter Notebook environment that showcases select applications
- Tutorial 1: How to mosaic and visualize RTC-S1 images
- ASF StoryMap Tutorials
- OPERA Sentinel-1 RTC — Cloud-Optimized Access for Sentinel-1 Radiometric Terrain Corrected SAR Backscatter Products from OPERA
- This tutorial illustrates different ways to access and explore the RTC-S1 products, including workflows that allow you to interact with these cloud-optimized rasters directly in cloud storage without downloading them first
- Change Detection using OPERA Sentinel-1 RTC
- Change Detection workflow for OPERA Radiometric Terrain-Corrected products from Sentinel-1 (RTC-S1)
- OPERA Sentinel-1 RTC — Cloud-Optimized Access for Sentinel-1 Radiometric Terrain Corrected SAR Backscatter Products from OPERA
DISP-S1: Product Specification Document, Static Product Specification Document, Sample Product, and Interactive Guides
Note: The DISP-S1 products will be available in 2024
DISP-NI: Product Specification Document, Static Product Specification Document, Sample Product, and Interactive Guides
Note: NISAR is scheduled to be launched in 2024
Sentinel-1 Level-2 Products
Level-2 Coregistered Single-Look Complex from Sentinel-1 (CSLC-S1)
The Coregistered Single-Look Complex (CSLC) product consists of SLC images that are precisely aligned or “coregistered” to a pre-defined UTM/Polar stereographic map projection system. The CSLC images contain both the amplitude and phase information of the complex radar return. The Level-2 CSLC product is derived from Sentinel-1 data and is provided in HDF5 format. The CSLC product also serves as the basis for the OPERA Displacement (DISP) product.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Product Name | Level-2 Coregistered Single-Look Complex from Sentinel-1 |
| Product Short Name | L2_CSLC-S1 |
| Satellite Platform | Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B |
| Sensor (center frequency) | C-Band SAR (5.405 GHz) |
| Temporal Coverage | 2014-present |
| Spatial Coverage | USA and U.S. Territories, Canada within 200 km of the U.S. border, and all mainland countries from the southern U.S. border down to and including Panama. |
| Repeat Period | 6-12 days |
| Acquisition Mode | IW |
| Data Source | Sentinel-1 SLC burst |
| Data Projection | UTM/WGS84 map grid |
| Spatial Resolution | 10m × 5m (azimuth x range) |
| Product Format | HDF5 |
| Version | 1.0 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.5067/SNWG/OPERA_L2_CSLC-S1_V1 |
| Data Provider | OPERA Data System |
| Data Distributor | ASF DAAC |
| Download information | ASF Data Discovery |
Level-2 Coregistered Single-Look Complex from Sentinel-1 Static Layers (CSLC-S1-STATIC)
The CSLC-ST-S1 product serves as an ancillary product to the OPERA Level 2 Single Look Complex (CSLC-S1) products and is distributed separately from the CSLC-S1 products. It is only produced once (or a limited amount of times) for CSLC-S1 products characterized by the same burst identification string i.e., for all the S1-A/B bursts covering the same geographical area on the ground.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Product Name | Level-2 Coregistered Single-Look Complex from Sentinel-1 Static Layers |
| Product Short Name | L2_CSLC-S1-STATIC |
| Satellite Platform | Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B |
| Sensor (center frequency) | C-Band SAR (5.405 GHz) |
| Temporal Coverage | 2014-present |
| Spatial Coverage | USA and U.S Territories, Canada within 200 km of the U.S. border, and all mainland countries from the southern U.S. border down to and including Panama. |
| Repeat Period | 6-12 days |
| Acquisition Mode | IW |
| Data Source | Sentinel-1 SLC burst |
| Data Projection | UTM/WGS84 map grid |
| DEM | Copernicus GLO-30 |
| Spatial Resolution | 10m × 5m (azimuth x range) |
| Layers | East (Range) LOS North (Azimuth) LOS Local Incidence Angle Layover Shadow Mask |
| Product Format | HDF5 |
| Version | 1.0 |
| DOI | 10.5067/SNWG/OPERA_L2_CSLC-S1-STATIC_V1 |
| Data Provider | OPERA Data System |
| Data Distributor | ASF DAAC |
| Download information | ASF Data Discovery |
Level-2 Radiometric Terrain-Corrected from Sentinel-1 (RTC-S1)
The Radiometric Terrain Corrected SAR Backscatter product consists of Sentinel-1 radar backscatter data normalized with respect to the topography. It is a Level-2 product that is projected onto a pre-defined UTM/Polar stereographic map projection system. The Copernicus Global 30 m (GLO-30) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is the reference DEM used to correct for the impacts of topography and to geocode the product. The product is provided in a GeoTIFF file format.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Product Name | Level-2 Radiometric Terrain-Corrected Backscatter from Sentinel-1 |
| Product Short Name | L2_RTC-S1 |
| Satellite Platform | Sentinel-1A |
| Sensor (center frequency) | C-Band SAR (5.405 GHz) |
| Temporal Coverage | October 2023-present |
| Spatial Coverage | Near Global (all land masses excluding Antarctica) |
| Repeat Period | 12 days |
| Acquisition Mode | IW |
| Data Source | Sentinel-1 SLC burst |
| Data Projection | UTM/ Polar stereographic map grid |
| DEM | Copernicus GLO-30 |
| Spatial Resolution | 30-meter |
| Product Format | Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) |
| Version | 1.0 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.5067/SNWG/OPERA_L2_RTC-S1_V1 |
| Data Provider | OPERA Data System |
| Data Distributor | ASF DAAC |
| Download information | ASF Data Discovery |
Level-2 Radiometric Terrain-Corrected SAR from Sentinel-1 Static Layers (RTC-S1-STATIC)
The Radiometric Terrain Corrected (RTC-S1) SAR Backscatter Static Layers product is a Level 2 product that contains static radar geometry layers associated with the RTC-S1 product.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Product Name | Level-2 Radiometric Terrain-Corrected SAR from Sentinel-1 Static Layers |
| Product Short Name | RTC-S1-STATIC |
| Satellite Platform | Sentinel-1A |
| Sensor (center frequency) | C-Band SAR (5.405 GHz) |
| Temporal Coverage | October 2023-present |
| Spatial Coverage | Near Global (all land masses excluding Antarctica) |
| Repeat Period | 6-12 days |
| Acquisition Mode | IW |
| Data Source | Sentinel-1 SLC burst |
| Data Projection | UTM/ Polar stereographic map grid |
| DEM | Copernicus GLO-30 |
| Spatial Resolution | 30-meter |
| Layers | Incidence angle Local-incidence angle No. of looks Mask layer RTC Area Normalization Factor (ANF) gamma0 to beta0 RTC Area Normalization Factor (ANF) gamma0 to sigma0 |
| Product Format | Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) |
| Version | 1.0 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.5067/SNWG/OPERA_L2_RTC-S1-STATIC_V1 |
| Data Provider | OPERA Data System |
| Data Distributor | ASF DAAC |
| Download information | ASF Data Discovery |
Citation Information
| Product | Format |
|---|---|
| CSLC-S1 | OPERA. 2023. OPERA Level-2 Coregistered Single-Look Complex from Sentinel-1. Fairbanks, Alaska USA. NASA Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.5067/SNWG/OPERA_L2_CSLC-S1_V1. [Date Accessed]. |
| CSLC-S1 Static Layers | OPERA. 2023. OPERA Level-2 Coregistered Single-Look Complex Static Layers from Sentinel-1. Fairbanks, Alaska USA. NASA Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.5067/SNWG/10.5067/SNWG/OPERA_L2_CSLC-S1-STATIC_V1. [Date Accessed]. |
| RTC-S1 | OPERA. 2023. OPERA Level-2 Radiometric Terrain Corrected from Sentinel-1. Fairbanks, Alaska USA. NASA Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.5067/SNWG/OPERA_L2_RTC-S1_V1. [Date Accessed]. |
| RTC-S1 Static Layers | OPERA. 2023. OPERA Level-2 Radiometric Terrain Corrected Static Layers from Sentinel-1. Fairbanks, Alaska USA. NASA Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.5067/SNWG/OPERA_L2_RTC-S1-STATIC_V1. [Date Accessed]. |
Discover OPERA products
The OPERA L-3 North America Land Surface Displacement product and L-2 CSLC and RTC products can be accessed at ASF DAAC
| Data Discovery Tool | Link |
|---|---|
| ASF Vertex Data Search | Vertex |
| Python Search Module | asf_search |
| ASF Search API | ASF Search API |
| NASA Earthdata Search | Earthdata Search |
Learn more about ASF Data Discovery Services
OPERA products can also be directly accessed from AWS
Note: Access is available IN REGION only
| Dataset | AWS Region | Bucket/Object Prefix – PRODUCTS | Bucket/Object Prefix – BROWSE | Authentication | Documentation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CSLC | US-WEST-2 | asf-cumulus-prod-opera-products/OPERA_L2_CSLC-S1/ | asf-cumulus-prod-opera-browse/OPERA_L2_CSLC-S1/ | Get AWS S3 Credentials | README file |
| CSLC Static Layers | US-WEST-2 | asf-cumulus-prod-opera-products/OPERA_L2_CSLC-S1_STATIC/ | N/A | Get AWS S3 Credentials | README file |
| RTC | US-WEST-2 | asf-cumulus-prod-opera-products/OPERA_L2_RTC-S1/ | asf-cumulus-prod-opera-browse/OPERA_L2_RTC-S1/ | Get AWS S3 Credentials | README file |
| RTC Static Layers | US-WEST-2 | asf-cumulus-prod-opera-products/OPERA_L2_RTC-S1_STATIC/ | N/A | Get AWS S3 Credentials | README file |
| Surface Displacement (DISP) | US-WEST-2 | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD |