The dataset contains all ESA acquisitions over the ADEN zone (Europe, Africa and the Middle East) plus some products received from JAXA over areas of interest around the world. Further information on ADEN zones can be found in this technical note. ALOS PALSAR products are available in following modes: Fine Beam Single polarisation (FBS), single polarisation (HH or VV), swath 40-70 km, resolution 10 m, temporal coverage from 02/05/2006 to 30/03/2011 Fine Beam Double polarisation (FBD), double polarisation (HH/HV or VV/VH), swath 40-70 km, resolution 10 m, temporal coverage from 02/05/2006 to 30/03/2011 Polarimetry mode (PLR), with four polarisations simultaneously: swath 30 km, resolution 30 m, temporal coverage from 26/08/2006 to 14/04/2011 ScanSAR Burst mode 1 (WB1), single polarisation: swath 250-350 km, resolution 100 m, temporal coverage from 12/06/2006 to 21/04/2011. Following processing levels are available: RAW (Level 1.0): Raw data generated by every downlink segment and every band. Divided into an equivalent size to one scene SLC (Level 1.1): Slant range single look complex product. Not available for WB1 GDH (Level 1.5): Ground range Detected, Normal resolution product GEC (Level 1.5): Geocoded product. The table summarises the ALOS PALSAR offer. Instrument mode Product type Processing level description JAXA processing level equivalent Fine Beam Single polarisation (HH or VV) FBS_RAW_0P Raw data generated by every downlink segment and every band. Divided into an equivalent size to one scene 1.0 FBS_GDH_1P Ground range Detected, Normal resolution product 1.5 FBS_GEC_1P Geocoded product 1.5 FBS_SLC_1P Slant range single look complex product 1.1 Fine Beam Double polarisation (HH/HV or VV/VH) FBD_RAW_0P Raw data generated by every downlink segment and every band. Divided into an equivalent size to one scene 1.0 FBD_GDH_1P Ground range Detected, Normal resolution product 1.5 FBD_GEC_1P Geocoded product 1.5 FBD_SLC_1P Slant range single look complex product 1.1 Polarimetry mode (4 polarisation) PLR_RAW_0P Raw data generated by every downlink segment and every band. Divided into an equivalent size to one scene 1.0 PLR_GDH_1P Ground range Detected, Normal resolution product 1.5 PLR_GEC_1P Geocoded product 1.5 PLR_SLC_1P Slant range single look complex product 1.1 ScanSAR Burst mode 1 (single polarisation) WB1_RAW_0P Raw data generated by every downlink segment and every band. Divided into an equivalent size to one scene 1.0 WB1_GDH_1P Ground range Detected, Normal resolution product 1.5 WB1_GEC_1P Geocoded product 1.5

The Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2), launched May 14, 2014, is a follow-on mission to ALOS. ALOS-2 features an imaging microwave radar, PALSAR-2 (Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar-2). With a wider range of observation modes PALSAR-2 improves on its predecessor PALSAR (which flew onboard ALOS). PALSAR-2 observes in the L-band, specifically 1257.5 MHz which is adjustable by ± 21 MHz. ScanSAR mode provides a spatial resolution of 60 m and 100 m for a swath of 490 km and 350 km respectively. Stripmap mode provides a resolution of 10 m, 6 m, and 3 m for a swath of 70 km, 70 km, and 50 km respectively. Spotlight mode provides a resolution of 1 m x 3 m for a swath of 25 km x 25 km. ALOS-2 also decreased the revisit time of its predecessor from 46 days to 14 days. ALOS-2 also has the ability to look either to the right or the left.

This collection provides open access to ScanSAR mode data acquired by ALOS-2. Recently acquired data are not included but are added when released for open access by JAXA. Although the ScanSAR mode has been acquired globally, the collection currently contains only partial global coverage, but coverage is increasing as data become available.

Products have been processed by JAXA as Level 1.1, such that range and single look azimuth compressed data is represented by complex I and Q channels to preserve the magnitude and phase information. The range coordinate is in slant range. The image is focused onto zero Doppler direction, and an image file is generated per each scan for ScanSAR mode. In addition the full aperture processing method was used to generate the products. With the full aperture method, range compression and one look azimuth compression are performed for the data whose gaps between neighboring bursts in a sub swath are filled with zeroes, this processing is performed for each scan and each polarization. Granules in this collection are distributed as a zip and are quite large, with the majority being 28GB (single polarization) or 56GB (dual polarization).