Sentinel satellite missions

Sentinel-1

Instrument: Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) in C-Band

Acquisition Modes: Stripmap (SM), Interferometric Wide swath (IW), Extra-Wide swath (EW), and Wave (WV)

Acquisition Date: April 2014 - present

Geographical Coverage: 90° N - 90° S

Polarisation: single (HH or VV) or dual polarisation (HH+HV or VV+VH)

Processing Level	Pixel spacing	Product guide	Data Source	Citation
Single Look Complex (SLC)	10 m (SM, IW) 20 m (EW)	Link	CDSE	Copernicus Sentinel data [year of data acquisition]
Ground Range Detected (GRD)	10 m (SM, IW) 20 m (EW)	Link	CDSE	Copernicus Sentinel data [year of data acquisition]
Normalized Radar Backscatter (NRB)	10 m (IW) 20 m (EW)	See below	DLR	German Aerospace Center (DLR) (2025): Sentinel-1 - NRB Level-1C - Global. https://doi.org/10.15489/4sc3nyjt0o76

Normalized Radar Backscatter (NRB)

This product contains geocoded radiometrically terrain corrected (RTC) gamma nought backscatter data ($\gamma^0_T$) processed from Sentinel-1 GRD. The product specification and processor prototyping were originally contracted by ESA. Since then, DLR has further developed and operationalized the processor and has deployed it on terrabyte. All available GRD data acquired in interferometric wide swath mode (IW) is systematically processed. The usage of cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs for the binary data and comprehensive STAC metadata facilitate large-scale data cube exploitation. The product is compliant with the CEOS-ARD SAR NRB specification version 5.5, according to a self-assessment, but has not been reviewed or endorsed yet. Please find below an overview of key product characteristics.

attribute	value
Processing Level	Level 1C
Spatial reference system	UTM/UPS
Gridding and tiling system	S2-MGRS
grid sampling	10 m
Measured variable	gamma nought RTC ($\gamma^0_T$), linear scaling
Units	$m^2 / m^2$
Tile size	109.8 x 109.8 km
Number of samples per tile	10980 x 10980
Polarizations	HH | VV | HH+HV | VV+VH
data volume (estimate)	8 PB
data volume per tile (avg.)	1.2 GB
data format	cloud-optimized GeoTIFF
compression	LERC-ZSTD
product landing page	https://doi.org/10.15489/4sc3nyjt0o76

Product naming

The S1-NRB product folder follows the following structure: MMM_AA_NRB__LFPP_YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS_OOOOOO_DDDDDD_TTTTT_CCCC

ID	ID description	Values / Examples	Comment
MMM	Mission	Allowed: S1A, S1B, S1C, S1D
AA	Acquisition mode	Allowed: IW
NRB	Product type	Fixed: NRB	Normalized Radar Backscatter
_	Resolution class	Fixed: _	No resolution class; constant resolution per acquisition mode
L	Processing Level	Fixed: 1	Level-1C normalized backscatter
F	Product class	Fixed: S	SAR Standard
PP	Polarisation	Allowed: SH (Single HH polarisation), SV (Single VV polarisation), DH (Dual HH/HV polarisation), DV (Dual VV/VH polarisation)
YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS	UTC start time	Example: 20201122T070809	Time of the earliest acquired pixel in the grid cell; Format: year (YYYY), month (MM), day (DD), "T", hour (HH), minute (MM), second (SS)
OOOOOO	Absolute orbit number	Allowed: 000001-999999 (decimal)	Taken from originating GRD; identical for subsequently acquired (and mosaicked) GRDs
DDDDDD	Mission data take ID	Allowed: 000001-FFFFFF (hex)	Taken from originating GRD; identical for subsequently acquired (and mosaicked) GRDs
TTTTT	MGRS tile identifier	Example: 32TNS
CCCC	Unique product identifier	Allowed: 0000-FFFF	A hexadecimal string generated by computing CRC-16 on a datetime string in ISO 8601 format. The CRC-16 algorithm used to compute the unique identifier is CRC-CCITT (0xFFFF). The datetime string is generated during processing and also stored in the product metadata files.

A near-identical naming scheme is applied to the files in the product.

Backscatter file naming:
mmm-aa-nrb-yyyymmddthhmmss-oooooo-dddddd-ttttt-pp-c-sss.eee

ID	ID description	Values /Examples	Comment
pp	Polarisation	Allowed: hh, hv, vv, vh, cc	Polarisation or "cc" for colour composite
c	Backscatter convention	Allowed: s, g	sigma nought RTC, gamma nought RTC
sss	Scaling	Allowed: lin, log
eee	File extension	Allowed: tif, vrt

Annotation file naming:
mmm-aa-nrb-yyyymmddthhmmss-oooooo-dddddd-ttttt-ff.eee

ID	ID description	Values /Examples	Comment
ff	File identifier	Allowed: dm gs id lc li	data mask gamma-sigma ratio acquisition ID mask local contributing area local incident angle
eee	File extension	Allowed: tif, vrt

Data structure

The following gives an overview of all files that can be found in one S1-NRB product.

Data use

QGIS must be built with GDAL>=3.5.0 for LERC decompression and VRT on-the-fly computations.

A tutorial on data cube usage with STAC and dask is available here:
https://github.com/DLR-terrabyte/demo-bids23

software

Most software developed for S1-NRB processing is available on GitHub:

s1ard: main S1-NRB processor
https://github.com/SAR-ARD/s1ard

cesard: general ARD processing utilities
https://github.com/SAR-ARD/cesard

pyroSAR: SAR processing framework
https://github.com/johntruckenbrodt/pyroSAR

spatialist: spatial data handling
https://github.com/johntruckenbrodt/spatialist

Sentinel-2

Instrument: MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI)

Acquisition Date: July 2015 - present

Geographical Coverage: 84° N - 56° S

Spatial Resolution: 10 m - 60 m

Spectral Range: 0.49 - 2.20 µm (table with bandwidth)

Processing Level	Atmospheric Processor	Product guide	Data Source	Citation
Level-1C	none	Link	CDSE	Copernicus Sentinel data [year of data acquisition]
Level-2A	Sen2Cor	Link	CDSE	Copernicus Sentinel data [year of data acquisition]
Level-2A	MAJA	S2 Product MAJA ATBD	DLR	DLR [year of acquisition] Sentinel-2 MSI - Level 2A (MAJA Tiles)

Sentinel-3

Instruments:

• SRAL (Sentinel-3 Radar Altimeter)
• MWR (MicroWave Radiometer)
• OLCI (Ocean and Land Color Instrument)
• SLSTR (Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer)

Acquisition Date: 2016 - present

Website: https://sentinels.copernicus.eu/web/sentinel/copernicus/sentinel-3

**Documentation: ** S3 Documents

Data Source: CDSE

Citation: Copernicus Sentinel data [year of data acquisition]

Instrument	Product type	Product Type Description
OLCI	OL_1_EFR___	Full Resolution TOA Reflectance
	OL_1_ERR___	Reduced Resolution TOA Reflectance
	OL_2_LFR___	Full Resolution Land and atmosphere geophysical products
	OL_2_LRR___	Reduced Resolution Land and atmosphere geophysical products
	OL_2_WFR___	Full Resolution Water and Atmosphere geophysical products
	OL_2_WRR___	Reduced Resolution Water and Atmosphere geophysical products
SLSTR	SL_1_RBT___	Brightness temperatures and radiances
	SL_2_AOD___	Aerosol Optical Depth
	SL_2_FRP___	Fire radiative power
	SL_2_LST___	Land surface temperature parameters
	SL_2_WST___	Level-2P sea surface temperature (GHRSST-like)
SYNERGY	SY_2_AOD___	Global Aerosol parameter over land and sea on super pixel resolution (4.5 km x 4.5 km)
	SY_2_SYN___	Surface Reflectance and Aerosol parameters over Land
	SY_2_V10___	1 km VEGETATION-Like product (~VGT-S10) 10 day synthesis surface reflectance and NDVI
	SY_2_VG1___	1 km VEGETATION-Like product (~VGT-S1) 1 day synthesis surface reflectance and NDVI
	SY_2_VGP___	1 km VEGETATION-Like product (~VGT-P) - TOA Reflectance

Sentinel-5P

Sentinel-5P has been studying the Earth's atmosphere since 2017. The TROPOMI instrument on board of Sentinel-5P measures the concentration of trace gases in the atmosphere. The data is used for air quality monitoring and for climate monitoring.

Instrument: TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI)

Acquisition Date: 2018 - present

Website: Sentinel-5P - Missions - Sentinel Online - Sentinel Online (esa.int)

Data Source: CDSE

Citation: Copernicus Sentinel data [year of data acquisition]

Level-1

Metadata Specification: Metadata specification for the TROPOMI L1b products

Product Readme File: S5P Mission Performance Centre Level 1b Readme

Product Type	Product Type Description	Spectral range [nm]
L1B_IR_SIR	Irradiance product SWIR module	2305-2385
L1B_IR_UVN	Irradiance product UVN module	270-775
L1B_RA_BD1	Radiance product band 1 (UV detector)	270 - 300
L1B_RA_BD2	Radiance product band 2 (UV detector)	300 - 320
L1B_RA_BD3	Radiance product band 3 (UVIS detector)	320 - 405
L1B_RA_BD4	Radiance product band 4 (UVIS detector)	405 - 500
L1B_RA_BD5	Radiance product band 5 (NIR detector)	675 - 725
L1B_RA_BD6	Radiance product band 6 (NIR detector)	725 - 775
L1B_RA_BD7	Radiance product band 7 (SWIR detector)	2305-2345
L1B_RA_BD8	Radiance product band 8 (SWIR detector)	2345-2385

Level-2

Product Type	Product Type Description	Readme	Product User Manual
L2__AER_AI	Aerosol index product	PRF-AI	PUM-AI
L2__AER_LH	Aerosol layer height product	PRF-AI	PUM-LH
L2__CH4___	Methane (CH4) vertical column	PRF-CH4	PUM-CH4
L2__CLOUD_	Cloud parameters	PRF-CL	PUM-CL
L2__CO____	Carbon monoxide (CO) total column	PRF-CO	PUM-CO
L2__FRESCO *	Cloud product
L2__HCHO__	Formaldehyde (CH2O) vertical column	PRF-HCHO	PUM-HCHO
L2__NO2___	Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) vertical column	PRF-NO2	PUM-NO2
L2__NP_BD3	Suomi-NPP cloud product – band 3	PRF-NPP	PUM-NPP
L2__NP_BD6	Suomi-NPP cloud product – band 6	PRF-NPP	PUM-NPP
L2__NP_BD7	Suomi-NPP cloud product – band 7	PRF-NPP	PUM-NPP
L2__O3____	Ozone (O3) total vertical column	PRF-O3-NRTI PRF-O3-OFFL	PUM-O3
L2__O3__PR	Ozone (O3) full vertical profile	PRF-O3_PR	PUM-O3_PR
L2__O3_TCL	Ozone (O3) tropospheric vertical column	PRF-O3_T	PUM-O3_T
L2__SO2___	Sulphur dioxide (SO2) vertical column	PRF-SO2	PUM-SO2

Further S5P documents can be found in the Document Library and in the S5P Products Overview.

(*) Note: by (political) decision, L2__FRESCO is no longer a L2 but AUX data for ESA / CDSE despite its nomenclature; within PDGS it remains a L2 candidate

Selected auxiliary data

Product Type	Product Type Description	Product User Manual
AUX_CTMFCT	NO2 profile data from TM5 Model running in forecast mode	PUM
AUX_CTMANA	NO2 profile data from TM5 Model running in assimilation mode	PUM