sar-pipeline

This repository contains code for running SAR processing pipelines on the NCI and AWS. Currently, this codebase supports two pipelines for generating Sentinel-1 Normalised Radar Backscatter (NRB). Detailed usage docs are provided below:

• isce3_rtc (Sentinel-1 IW) that can be run locally and on AWS
• pyroSAR-GAMMA (Sentinel-1 IW/EW) that can locally and on AWS
• pyroSAR-GAMMA (Sentinel-1 IW/EW) that can be run on the NCI

For more information see Pipelines or the specific workflow docs for usage examples and running tests.

Development Setup

Detailed documentation for the project setup can be found in the development documentation. It is highly recommended this be reviewed before contributing to the project. This project utilises pixi for managing packages and running tests.

• Cloning the project
• Developer set up

Quick Setup

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/GeoscienceAustralia/sar-pipeline.git

ISCE3 RTC

The ISCE3 RTC Pipeline can be used to produce CEOS Approved Analysis Ready Sentinel‑1 Radiometrically Terrain Corrected (RTC) or Normalised Radar Backscatter (NRB) data. The pipeline automatically downloads all required inputs and generates NRB outputs at the burst level, along with the associated metadata files—including STAC JSON and XML—required for standards‑compliant distribution and downstream use.

1. Build the container

docker build -t sar-pipeline -f Docker/isce3_rtc/Dockerfile .

2. Test the image interactively (type exit to exit)

docker run -it --entrypoint /bin/bash sar-pipeline

1. Set the following minimum environment credentials in a .env file. At minimum we require earthdata OR Coperniucs Space Data Ecosystem (CDSE) credentials to download from the Alaska Satelite Facility (ASF) or CDSE respectively. These can be created here for the ASF and CDSE.

EARTHDATA_LOGIN=
EARTHDATA_PASSWORD=

4. Generate Normalised Radar Backscatter for a test burst. The outputs will be written to a local data folder. To process the all bursts do not specify the burst ids. Note products will be made at the burst level, not the scene level.

mkdir data

docker run --env-file .env -v ${PWD}/data:/home/rtc_user/working sar-pipeline \
--scene S1A_IW_SLC__1SSH_20220101T124744_20220101T124814_041267_04E7A2_1DAD \
--burst_id_list t070_149815_iw3 \
--skip_upload_to_s3 \
--make_existing_products \
--scene_data_source ASF \
--orbit_data_source ASF 

Note if there are permission issues writing to the local ./data folder, the following can be run:

sudo chmod -R 777 ./data

5. See the outputs in the data folder:

.data/results/
└── baseline
    └── 1
        └── RTC_S1
            └── S1A_IW_SLC__1SSH_20220101T124744_20220101T124814_041267_04E7A2_1DAD
                ├── OPERA-RTC_runconfig.yaml
                ├── S1A_IW_SLC__1SSH_20220101T124744_20220101T124814_041267_04E7A2_1DAD_burst_geoms.json
                └── t070_149815_iw3
                    ├── ga_s1a_nrb_0-1-0_T070-149815-IW3_20220101T124752Z_HH-gamma0.tif
                    ├── ga_s1a_nrb_0-1-0_T070-149815-IW3_20220101T124752Z_checksum.sha1
                    ├── ga_s1a_nrb_0-1-0_T070-149815-IW3_20220101T124752Z_mask.tif
                    ├── ga_s1a_nrb_0-1-0_T070-149815-IW3_20220101T124752Z_metadata.h5
                    ├── ga_s1a_nrb_0-1-0_T070-149815-IW3_20220101T124752Z_metadata.xml
                    ├── ga_s1a_nrb_0-1-0_T070-149815-IW3_20220101T124752Z_proc-config.yaml
                    ├── ga_s1a_nrb_0-1-0_T070-149815-IW3_20220101T124752Z_stac-item.json
                    └── ga_s1a_nrb_0-1-0_T070-149815-IW3_20220101T124752Z_thumbnail.png

6. See the full docs to see how static layers can created and used.

License

Copyright © 2025 Geoscience Australia.

This project is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgements

This software distributes a modified version of the opera-adt/RTC software originally developed by NASA JPL and distributed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. Copyright © 2021 California Institute of Technology (“Caltech”). U.S. Government sponsorship acknowledged. All rights reserved. Modifications have been made by Geoscience Australia.