SARINGEST

Description

SARINGEST imports a SAR (POLSAR) dataset into the PCIDSK image database format. With polarimetric data, SARINGEST stores the data into PCIDSK complex imagery for subsequent processing by SAR and Coherent Change Detection functions, and in CATALYST Professional SAR Polarimetry Target Analysis. Both image data and metadata are imported. You can import the entire image, or you can specify a rectangular subset window of data to import. The matrix format is selected automatically according to the data contained in the image. You can specify the physical quantity, represented by pixel values, as sigma, beta, or gamma for RADARSAT-2, TerraSAR-X, UAVSAR, and ASAR. You can then convert the imported image to another matrix format by running the PSCONV algorithm.

Parameters

Name	Type	Caption	Length	Value range
FILI*	String	Input file name	1 - 192
FILO*	String	Output SAR image	1 - 192
DBIW	Integer	Raster input window	0 - 4	Xoffset, Yoffset, Xsize, Ysize
POPTION	String	Pyramid options	0 - 4	OFF \| NEAR \| AVER \| MODE Default: AVER
DBLAYOUT	String	Data Layout	0 - 192	PIXEL \| BAND \| FILE \| TILED \| TILEDN \| TILED RLE Default: TILED256
CALIBTYP	String	Data calibration type	0 - 6	Sigma \| Beta \| Gamma \| None
MONITOR	String	Monitor mode	0 - 3	ON, OFF Default: ON

* Required parameter

Parameter descriptions

FILI

The name of the PCIDSK or GDB-supported file that contains the SAR imagery to ingest. With SAR datasets distributed in multiple files, use the "key file name", as described herein.

With each supported sensor, the general form of the key file name is indicated. For more information about the retrieved data for each product, refer to the help topics for specific sensors, see About Generic Database file formats. The asterisk (*) in the file name indicates a (sensor-dependent) variable number of characters. The number symbols (#) in CV-580 file names indicate the line and pass number, respectively, of the given dataset.

With the following sensors, specify the indicated files as the input file:

AIRSAR aboard a NASA DC-8 aircraft: Specify the CM*.dat file
ASAR aboard the ESA ENVISAT satellite: Specify the ASA_*.N1 file
Convair 580 (or CV-580) aboard a CCRS Convair 580 aircraft: Specify one of the l#p#hhpolgasp.hdr, l#p#hvpolgasp.hdr, l#p#vhpolgasp.hdr, or l#p#vvpolgasp.hdr files
RADARSAT-2 (and simulated RADSARSAT-2): Specify the product.xml file
SIR-C aboard the NASA Space Shuttle Endeavour: Specify the pr*_ldr_ceos file
ERS and RADARSAT-1: Specify the DAT_01.001 file
PALSAR: Specify the IMG-*-ALPSR*-*.* (JAXA format) or DAT_01.001 (ERSDAC format) file
Cosmo-Skymed: Specify the CSKS1_*.h5
TerraSAR-X: Specify the *.xml file
UAVSAR: Specify the *.ann file

Note: Because UAVSAR products share a common key file (*.ann), it may be necessary to differentiate which product is required when multiple product types are in the same folder as the key file. If no descriptor is given for the key file, then the order of precedence is from GRD (most processed), followed by MLC, DAT, and SLC (least processed). If multiple products are in the folder, you must indicate which product is requested by appending one of (-GRD, -MLC, -DAT or -SLC) to the input file name (for example, FILI = *.ANN-DAT).

FILO

The name of the PCIDSK file to which to write the ingested SAR product. The output file must not exist already. If available, GCPs, text, orbit, and rational polynomial coefficients are retrieved and stored with the image channels in the output file.

With complex SAR imagery, the output format is PCIDISK Complex Imagery.

DBIW

The raster window (Xoffset, Yoffset, Xsize, Ysize) that is read from the input image. If no value is specifed for this parameter, the entire layer is processed by default.

Xoffset, Yoffset define the upper-left starting pixel coordinates of the window. Xsize is the number of pixels that define the window width. Ysize is the number of lines that define the window height.

POPTION

The type of resampling to use to compute the overview levels for detected data.

Available options are:

OFF: Does not compute overviews. Although this option delays the browsing of an image, processing is quick, and it uses a minimum amount of disk space.
NEAR (NEAREST): Uses nearest-neighbor resampling.
AVER (AVERAGE): Calculates the average value of all of the pixels that contribute to the overview pixel. Use this option with continuous-tone images. AVERAGE produces a better-looking and more interpretable overview than NEAR. This is the default value.
MODE: Takes the mode of the pixels contributing to the overview pixel. This option is suitable for use with classified, pseudocolored, or thematic images, but not continuous-tone images.
To compute thematic image overviews, such as classification results, use MODE. With continuous-tone images, especially radar images, use AVER. Building overviews by using AVER or MODE can be significantly slower than with NEAR. If you do not know the characteristics of an image, or if the speed is your primary consideration in preparing the image overviews, use the NEAR option.

Note: With complex data, only the OFF, NEAR (NEAREST), and AVER (AVERAGE) options are valid.

DBLAYOUT

The layout of the image data in the new PCIDSK file.

Supported values include:

PIXEL: Pixel interleaved
BAND: Band interleaved; this is the default value
FILE: File interleaved
TILED: Tiled with a default tile size
TILEDN: Tiled with n x n pixel tiles
TILEDN RLE: Tiled with RLE compression and n x n pixel tiles

The specified layout is based primarily on performance. Band interleaved stores the data together for one band and provides a better performance when bands are not all being accessed at all times. Pixel interleaved stores the data for all bands together at a particular pixel and may provide improved performance when all bands are used at once. File interleaved is similar to band interleaved, but the image-channel data is stored in external files (one file for each band).

Tiled files organize the image in several square sub-images; these may be much faster to access when only a sub-area is being extracted, as in file viewing. Tiling is also the only format that supports compression formats, with a default of no compression.

JPEG compression is a lossy compression and is typically suitable for continuous images, such as airphotos.

Quadtree compression is another lossy compression, and provides good compression when images contain large blocks of pixels with the same value.

Run Length Encoding (RLE) compression is lossless, but only provides good compression for images in which long sequences of pixels have the same value, which is typical in pseudocolored or thematic images.

CALIBTYP

The type of radiometric calibration to apply. The calibration type defines the physical quantity that the imported pixels will represent, either sigma nought, beta nought, or gamma nought.

You use this parameter only with RADARSAT-2, TerraSAR-X, ASAR, and UAVSAR images. The calibration is applied based on the coefficients provided in the scene. If you require calibration for RADARSAT-1, run the CDSAR algorithm followed by the SARSIGM algorithm or the SARBETA algorithm.

Note: You cannot apply calibration to datasets that have been already resampled to map projection if the original incident-angle information is unavailable.

MONITOR

The program progress can be monitored by printing the percentage of processing completed. A system parameter, MONITOR, controls this activity.

Available options are:

ON: Turns the monitor ON (default)
OFF: Turns the monitor OFF (recommended if running in batch or background mode)

Details

With complex imagery, SARINGEST converts the input dataset into PCIDSK Complex Imagery format, which is required for processing by SAR and Coherent Change Detection functions, and CATALYST Professional SAR Polarimetry Target Analysis.

The matrix type depends on the content of the input data, as described herein. Each real matrix element is stored in one channel. Each complex matrix element is stored in a single complex channel containing the real and imaginary components of the complex number. All of the values are stored as floating point numbers. All of the channels at a pixel are combined to yield the POLSAR matrix representation of the recorded signal at this pixel. With detected data, SARINGEST determines the output bit depth and channel type from the input bit depth.

Imported data products

The supported SAR-data products for each sensor are listed herein. For each sensor, the products are grouped by their POLSAR-matrix representations written to the output file.

The following data products are imported for the AIRSAR sensor [1]:

As a symmetrized covariance matrix C3r3c:
- MLC: Multilook complex, standard quad-polarization
  
  The data is imported as six channels, which represent the six independent elements of the C3r3c matrix.
The output AIRSAR file also has an array segment that contains an incident angle value (in degrees) for each range sample location.

The following data products are imported for the ASAR sensor [2]:

As an incomplete covariance matrix c2r:
- ASA_APG_1P: Alternating Polarization mode, ellipsoid geocoded
- ASA_APM_1P: Alternating Polarization mode, medium resolution
- ASA_APP_1P: Alternating Polarization mode, precision
The data is imported as two channels, which represent the two independent real-valued elements of the c2r matrix.
As an incomplete Sinclair scattering matrix s2c:
- ASA_APS_1P: Alternating Polarization mode, single look complex
  
  The data is imported as four channels, which represent the real and imaginary components of the two independent elements of the s2c matrix.
  
  Importing the ASA_APS_1P data requires an external calibration file ASA_XCA_AX. It is recommended that you acquire the file with the distributed data or download it from the ESA archive [5].
The output ASAR files also have an array segment that contains an incident angle value (in degrees) for each range sample location and a GCP segment with ground control points for nominal georeferencing.

The following data products are imported for the CV-580 sensor [3]:

As a non-symmetrized Sinclair scattering matrix s4c:
- SLC-Q: Single look, complex, standard quad-polarization
  
  The data is imported as four channels, which represent each component of the four independent complex elements of the s4c matrix.
As a symmetrized covariance matrix C3r3c:
- MLC-Q: Multilook complex, standard symmetrized quad-polarization
  
  The data is imported as six channels, which represent the three real and three complex independent elements of the C3r3c matrix.

The following RADARSAT-2 data products are imported [4]:

As a non-symmetrized Sinclair scattering matrix s4c:
- SLC-FQ: Single look, complex, fine quad-polarization.
- SLC-SQ: Single look, complex, standard quad-polarization
  
  The quad-polarization, slant-range SLC data products imported as four channels, which represent each component of the four independent complex elements of the s4c matrix.
As an incomplete Sinclair scattering matrix s2c:
- SLC-FD: Single look, complex, fine dual-polarization
- SLC-SD: Single look, complex, standard dual-polarization
- SLC-WD: Single look, complex, wide dual-polarization
  
  The dual-polarization slant-range SLC data is imported as two channels, which represent each component of the two independent elements of the s2c matrix.
As an incomplete non-symmetrized covariance matrix c4r:
- SGX-FQ: SAR georeferenced extra, fine quad-polarization
- SGX-SQ: SAR georeferenced extra, standard quad-polarization
- SSG-FQ: Systematic geocorrected fine quad-polarization
- SSG-SQ: Systematic geocorrected standard quad-polarization
- SPG-FQ: Precision geocorrected fine quad-polarization
- SPG-SQ: Precision geocorrected, standard quad-polarization
  
  The quad-polarization ground-range or geocorrected data is imported as four channels, which represent the real-valued diagonal elements of the matrix c4r.
As an incomplete covariance matrix c2r:
- SGX-FD: SAR georeferenced, extra, fine dual-polarization
- SGX-SD: SAR georeferenced, extra, standard dual-polarization
- SGX-WD: SAR georeferenced, extra, wide dual-polarization
- SGF-FD: SAR georeferenced, fine, fine dual-polarization
- SGF-SD: SAR georeferenced, fine, standard dual-polarization
- SGF-WD: SAR georeferenced, fine, wide dual-polarization
- SGC-FD: SAR georeferenced, coarse, fine dual-polarization
- SGC-SD: SAR georeferenced, coarse, standard dual-polarization
- SGC-WD: SAR georeferenced, coarse, wide dual-polarization
- SSG-FD: Systematic geocorrected, fine dual-polarization
- SSG-SD: Systematic geocorrected, standard dual-polarization
- SSG-WD: Systematic geocorrected, wide dual-polarization
- SPG-FD: Precision geocorrected, standard dual-polarization
- SPG-SD: Precision geocorrected, standard dual-polarization
- SPG-WD: Precision geocorrected, wide dual-polarization
  
  The dual-polarization ground-range or geocorrected data is imported as two channels, which represent the real-valued diagonal elements of the matrix c2r.
Output files for all slant-range and ground-range simulated RADARSAT-2 data products (SLC, SGX, SGF, and SGC) also have an array segment that contains an incident angle value (in degrees) for each range sample location.

The following data products are imported for the RISAT-1 sensor:

As an incomplete Sinclair scattering matrix s2c:
- FRS-1: Single look, complex, dual-polarization
- FRS-1: Single look, complex, compact-polarization
- FRS-2: Single look, complex, compact-polarization
- MRS-1: Single look, complex, compact-polarization
- MRS-1: Single look, complex, dual-polarization
- CRS-1: Single look, complex, dual-polarization
- CRS-1: Single look, complex, compact-polarization
- HRS-1: Single look, complex, dual-polarization
- HRS-1: Single look, complex, compact-polarization
As a Sinclair scattering matrix s4c:
- FRS-2: Single look, complex, full-quad-polarization

The following data products are imported for the SIR-C sensor [1]:

As a non-symmetrized Sinclair scattering matrix s4c:
- SLC-Q: Single look, complex, standard quad-polarization
  
  The quad-polarization, slant-range SLC data is imported as four channels, which represent each component of the four independent complex elements of the s4c matrix.
As an incomplete Sinclair scattering matrix s2c:
- SLC-D: Single look, complex, dual-polarization
  
  The dual-polarization slant-range SLC data is imported as two channels, which represent each component of the two independent elements of the s2c matrix.
As a symmetrized covariance matrix C3r3c:
- MLC-Q: Multilook, complex, quad-polarization
  
  The quad-polarization, slant-range MLC data is imported as six channels, which represent the six independent elements of the C3r3c matrix.
As an incomplete covariance matrix c2r1c:
- MLC-D: Multilook, complex, dual-polarization
  
  The dual-polarization, slant-range MLC data is imported as three channels, which represent the two real and one complex element of the c2r1c matrix.

Metadata

In addition to image and segment data, the algorithm extracts metadata related to SAR processing and writes it to the output file. There are two levels of metadata: file and channel.

At the file level, SAR metadata contains information that relates to the data set as a whole, including:

SensorModelName: Description of the sensor; for example RADARSAT-2
SensorType: Always SAR
Product_Type: Imported data product; for example, SLC for RADARSAT-2 or ASA_APM_1P for ASAR
Matrix_Type: Matrix stored on file; for example, s4c or c2r
Acquisition_Type: Optional detailed information related to the image; for example, standard quad-polarization for RADARSAT-2 or alternating polarization for ASAR
SAR_Calibration: Physical quantity represented by pixel values; for example, sigma0
MicrowaveBand: SAR band of the image; for example x or x
Polarizations: List of polarizations of the data in the image; for example, HH, HV. Each polarization is represented by two characters. The first character specifies the transmit polarization, the second specifies the receive polarization.
NumLooks: Nominal number of SAR looks for each pixel
NumRangeLooks: Number of SAR looks, in range direction, for slant-range images
NumAzimuthLooks: Number of SAR looks, in azimuth direction, for slant-range images

At the channel level, metadata for polarimetric data identifies the matrix element stored in the channel:

Matrix_Element: Describes the row and column position of the element in the matrix.

For example, with a data set stored as an s4c matrix, the first channel is identified as _1_1 and the second channel is identified as _1_2.

Example

Imports the specified SAR (POLSAR) dataset into the PCIDSK image database format.

EASI>FILI = "product.xml"
EASI>FILO = "out.pix"
EASI>DBIW =
EASI>POPTION = "NEAR"
EASI>PDBLAYOUT = "BAND""
EASI>CALIBTYP = "SIGMA"

EASI>RUN SARINGEST

References

[1]. Chapman, B. SIR-C Data Compression Software User Guide, NASA JPL D-11427, Revision 2.0. June 1994; http://jpl.nasa.gov/.

[2]. European Space Agency, ASAR Product Handbook, September 2004; http://envisat.esa.int/pub/ESA_DOC/ENVISAT/ASAR/asar.ProductHandbook.1_3.pdf.zip.

[3]. Wind, A.F. and K.P. Murnaghan. CV-580 PolGASP Format Definition, CCRS-TN-2002-025. Canada Centre for Remote Sensing, November 24, 2004.

[4]. MDA, RADARSAT-2 Product Format Definition, RN-RP-51-2713, Issue 1/5, 2003.

[5]. ESA, ASAR Auxiliary Data Files. Available at http://earth.esa.int.

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