Accessing SAR Data Center Data
Vertex: ASF’s Data Portal
ASF has developed and deployed a user interface to highlight the contents of the pre-processed ASF SAR Datapool. Vertex is an intuitive user interface that facilitates the search for and visualization of ASF Datapool assets, delivery of relevant metadata about those assets, and facilitates the bulk delivery of those ASF data. Vertex is designed to familiarize users with SAR data without requiring any prior knowledge of SAR platforms, beam modes or processing parameters. Read more...
Go to Vertex
User Remote Sensing Access (URSA)
URSA is the primary mechanism for searching the ASF SDC archive for SAR data. The SDC archive, inclusive of both unrestricted and restricted SAR data products, is accessed through Geographic Searches (bounding box on an interactive map) and Express Searches (insertion of specific granule or mission names).
URSA is the primary mechanism for accessing the ASF SDC archive for SAR data. SAR data are available at multiple processing levels and processing types; specific information on the data products and processing levels can be found at the SDC Data page. Data are available for Direct Download at the primary processing levels; through a Bulk Download mechanism for larger quantities of pre-processed data; and through an asynchronous custom processing module, inclusive of Interferogram creation. The Bulk Download of SDC satellite data requires a download client. ASF has explored numerous download clients and recommends those listed on the Bulk Download of the ASF Datapool page.
Accessing the archive requires the submission of a brief proposal, the format of which is defined by the preferred data products. Additional guidelines for proposal authoring and submission can be found at the SDC Submit proposal page. Proposal review and approval typically takes two to six weeks.
Go to URSA
ASF Application Programming Interface (API)
ASF has developed and deployed an Application Programming Interface (API) as an additional avenue to access the SDC archive. The purpose of this API is to present users a flexible web service that facilitates the search for and visualization of ASF assets, delivery of relevant metadata about those assets, as well as facilitate the bulk delivery of those ASF holdings, to the SAR data user community.
Specific information about the API and how to utilize its functionality to serve your data needs best can be found at the ASF API Web page.
ASF MapServer
ASF has configured a MapServer to better serve our GIS savvy clientele. MapServer is an open source platform for publishing spatial data and interactive mapping applications to the web; a Web Mapping Service. The primary benefit of this server for the ASF user community is the ability to connect directly to ASF’s archived mosaics from your personal GIS environment, specifically from the QGIS or ArcGIS application suites.
Specific information about the MapServer and how to utilize its functionality to serve your data needs best can be found at the ASF MapServer Web page.
ASF Simple Subset Agent (SSA)
Through collaborative efforts of the NASA DAACs, a new Simple Subset Wizard (SSW) has been developed for the seamless data retrieval of unrestricted products from all DAACs through one simple user interface. The SSW has minimal required search parameters such as latitude and longitude coordinates, date range of interest and keywords, to access data archived at multiple DAACs simultaneously, including the ASF SAR Data Center. The ASF Simple Subset Agent (SSA) works synchronously with the SSW spatial and temporal search criteria, to explore the UAVSAR and AIRSAR data sets of the unrestricted SAR data pool at ASF. Searches provide the user links to browse imagery of the SAR data they are interested in over the area defined in the SSW.
The entirety of the UAVSAR and AIRSAR collections archived at ASF can be accessed for direct download at https://ursa.asfdaac.alaska.edu/cgi-bin/login/guest/
Additional information about AIRSAR data and the AIRSAR missions can be found at the SDC Supported Sensors ASF Webpage and at the JPL AIRSAR Web site.
Additional information about UAVSAR and the UAVSAR missions can be found at the SDC Supported Sensors ASF Web page and at the JPL UAVSAR Web site
NASA Reverb
The Next Generation Earth Science Discovery Tool provides a new interface for discovering, accessing, and using EOS data products and services. This web-based client for discovering and ordering cross-discipline data from all twelve of the EOSDIS data centers’ metadata holdings. Reverb allows users, including those without specific knowledge of the data, to search science data holdings, retrieve high-level descriptions of data sets and detailed descriptions of the data inventory, view browse images, and submit orders to the appropriate data providers.
