Sensor support for synthetic aperture radar sensors

ArcGIS Pro supports synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors. Supported sensor data is treated as a raster layer with radar properties and capabilities. The level of support depends on the sensor.

When loaded into ArcGIS Pro, the supported sensor data is rendered using the number of polarizations available. If the sensor data has a single polarization, the data is treated as a single-band raster layer. By default, it is displayed as a single-band raster using the Stretched symbology and Standard Deviation stretch type.

The default rendering for single polarized SAR data is shown.

If the sensor data is dual polarized (either VV, VH or HH, HV), the data is treated as a two-band raster layer and is rendered using RGB symbology. By default, this is displayed as Red = band 1, Green = band 2, and Blue= band 2.

The default rendering for dual polarized SAR data is shown.

If the sensor data is quad polarized (includes VV, VH, HH, and HV), the data is treated as a four-band raster and is rendered using RGB symbology. By default, this is displayed as Red = band 1, Green = band 2, and Blue = band 3.

The default rendering for quad polarized SAR data is shown.

When only displaying a single polarization using the Stretched symbology, you can choose one of the following stretch types that is specifically for enhancing SAR visualization:

• Square Root—A linear stretch is applied on the square root values of the pixels.
• Logarithm—A linear stretch is applied on the 10log₁₀ values of the pixels.

Note:

Once the dataset has been processed by a tool outside the Synthetic Aperture Radar toolset, it is no longer considered a radar layer since the radar metadata is no longer available.

The tables below list the geoprocessing tools and raster functions that are available for the various SAR sensors. The ability to process the data using specific polarizations is only available through the geoprocessing tools. All the geoprocessing tools in the first two tables require the ArcGIS Image Analyst extension license, except the Create Color Composite tool. The raster function table shows the necessary licences for the various functionality.

SAR tools for GRD data

Tool	Sentinel-1 GRD	ICEYE GRD	RCM GRD	RADARSAT-2 SGX	Capella GEC	Capella GEO
Download Orbit File
Apply Orbit Correction
Remove Thermal Noise
Apply Coregistration
Apply Radiometric Calibration
Apply Radiometric Terrain Flattening
Compute Coherence
Deburst
Despeckle
Apply Geometric Terrain Correction
Convert SAR Units
Multilook
Create Color Composite
Compute SAR Indices
Detect Bright Ocean Areas
Detect Dark Ocean Objects
Extract Water

Note:

RADARSAR SGX data is similar in functionality to SGF, SCN, SCW, SCF, and SCS data.

SAR tools for complex data

Tool	Sentinel-1 SLC	ICEYE SICD	RCM SLC	RADARSAT-2 SLC	Capella SICD
Download Orbit File
Apply Orbit Correction
Remove Thermal Noise
Apply Coregistration
Apply Radiometric Calibration
Apply Radiometric Terrain Flattening
Compute Coherence
Deburst
Despeckle
Apply Geometric Terrain Correction
Convert SAR Units
Multilook
Create Color Composite
Compute SAR Indices
Detect Bright Ocean Areas
Detect Dark Ocean Objects
Extract Water

SAR raster functions

Function	License level	Sentinel-1 GRD	Sentinel-1 SLC	ICEYE GRD	ICEYE SICD	RCM GRD	RCM SLC	RADARSAT-2 SGX	RADARSAT-2 SLC	Capella GEC	Capella GEO	Capella SICD
Sentinel-1 Thermal Noise Removal	Desktop Basic
Sentinel-1 Radiometric Calibration	Desktop Basic
Thermal Noise Removal	ArcGIS Image Analyst extension
Radar Calibration	Desktop Basic
Speckle	Desktop Basic
Terrain Flatten	ArcGIS Image Analyst extension
Unit Conversion	Desktop Basic
Complex	Desktop Basic
Create Color Composite	Desktop Basic