Example Resources

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NASA Resources

Register for an Earthdata Login Profile:
- NASA SAR data including those at the sites listed below are publicly accessible, but you must create an Earthdata account for access.
Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) Postcards:
- These postcards highlight notable imagery from the airborne radar sensor, UAVSAR, the prototype for NISAR. Use these postcards as inspiration for your SARt-work, or use the download links to add your own SARtistic spin!
UAVSAR:
- This resource links to the full UAVSAR archive of data. Select an area of interest around the world using the map and the dataset will be highlighted on the right-side menu. Select one of the “PolSAR” dates and click “view”. On the data page, experienced users can explore the detailed radar products or beginners can download a KMZ file to open in Google Earth. Other options can be found by clicking the link for the “complete/download listing,” which includes file formats such as .dat, .gif, .tif, and more.
UAVSAR Polarimetric (PolSAR) Data Format:
- Information on the PolSAR data format can be found here.
NASA Earthdata Search:
- This resource links to other SAR satellite data, such as data from Sentinel-1. Use the left side menu to filter the data by subject keyword, instrument, data format, and more. Click the icons at the top menu to filter by date and/or area by drawing your area of interest. Select your desired data product and click through to download.
NASA Data Made Easy: Getting Started with SAR

What is Synthetic Aperture Radar?

NISAR Applications White Papers

NISAR Multimedia Page

Other Resources

NASA Alaska Satellite Facility:
- This resource links to all the SAR data available at NASA’s SAR Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC). You can find video tutorials and other guides by clicking the question mark icon on the top right part of the page, between the shopping cart and login icons.
NISAR - Watching Earth Move

Space Agency Partner Resources

Argentina National Space Activities Commission (CONAE)

SAOCOM Catalogue
- Access CONAE's latest SAR mission, SAOCOM catalogue and general information to register, download the images. Download and processing tutorials. Register for an ONE CLICK Login Profile.
SAOCOM Catalogue registration
- Registration protocol to access SAOCOM catalogue with ONE CLICK Profile.

Canadian Space Agency (CSA)

RADARSAT Constellation Mission
- RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) is a constellation of three Canadian satellites that use a technology called synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to capture images of the Earth's surface. It has been active since 2019. As these satellites are still active, this dataset is continually being updated with new images. A large portion of this data is available to the public by registering for a free account on the Earth Observation Data Management System (EODMS), linked here: https://www.eodms-sgdot.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca/index-en.html. This is a rich source of free SAR data.
RADARSAT-1 Archive
- RADARSAT-1 was a Canadian satellite, active from 1995 to 2013, that captured images of the Earth's surface using a technology called synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Archived RADARSAT-1 data is available on the Earth Observation Data Management System as well as via an AWS S3 bucket. This is another rich source of SAR data.
Remote Sensing Tutorial
- This tutorial provides an overview of remote sensing generally, and goes over the key technologies used in this field. If you're new to synthetic aperture radar, or just need a refresher, this is a good place to start.
Synthetic Aperture Radar Tutorial
- This tutorial shows you how to use and analyse SAR data with either Python or a free and open source software called QGIS. It was specifically developped for data from the RADARSAT missions, but could easily be applied to SAR data from other missions.
RADARSAT-1 on AWS Tutorial
- This tutorial shows you how to use and analyse RADARSAT-1 data stored in the open AWS S3 bucket using Python. This could be useful if you want to use that S3 bucket specifically, but it could also be useful if you choose a different dataset because it shows you how to manipulate the data in Python.
Winter-Water-Warming: Canadian Synthetic Aperture Radar Applications
- This free e-course explains how synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is used in Canada for research, development, and in operational environments for mapping and environmental monitoring. This will provide you some additional context on the applications of SAR data.
Satellite Art
- This collection of satellite art pieces could inspire you for this challenge.

European Space Agency (ESA)

Sentinel-1 data
- Access to Sentinel-1 data from the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem
Sentinel-1 resources from the ESA website
- Various resources, images, videos, and other information about the Sentinel-1 mission and its data products

2023 NASA Space Apps Challenge

Create a Work of SARt (Synthetic Aperture Radar Art)