Getting started with

SARscape for Windows

Version 1.0
October 2015

Index
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3
SARscape Quick Start .............................................................................................................................. 4
Install SARscape .................................................................................................................................. 4
Uninstall SARscape .............................................................................................................................. 4
ENVI environment and preferences ....................................................................................................... 6
SARscape preferences .......................................................................................................................... 8
OpenCL Platform and Devices ........................................................................................................... 9
SARscape environment and modules ..................................................................................................... 9
SARscape Panel .............................................................................................................................. 10
SARscape Workflow ........................................................................................................................ 14
Generate Tiff .................................................................................................................................. 18
SARscape Extensions and file browser filter ...................................................................................... 19
SARscape primary functionalities ............................................................................................................ 23
Sentinel Data Download ..................................................................................................................... 23
Data Import ...................................................................................................................................... 25
DEM Extraction .................................................................................................................................. 29
Multilooking ....................................................................................................................................... 34
Sample Selection ............................................................................................................................... 35
Sample Selection Geographic Data .................................................................................................. 36
Sample Selection SAR Geometry Data .............................................................................................. 37
Geocoding ......................................................................................................................................... 40
Batch Processing ............................................................................................................................... 45
Create Batch File ............................................................................................................................ 45
Store batch .................................................................................................................................... 45
Batch Browser ................................................................................................................................ 45
Batch Chain ................................................................................................................................... 47
Parallel Batch Processing ................................................................................................................ 48
.Log, Trace and Error report ............................................................................................................... 48
Clean Working Directory ..................................................................................................................... 49
About SARscape ................................................................................................................................ 50

Introduction
This document walks the reader through an example application (the generation of a geocoded and filtered
Sentinel-1A image) to illustrate SARscapes main functionalities. These are referred to SARscape version 5.2.0,
running under ENVI 5.2 with a standard (GIS-like) interface installed on Windows 7, 64bit.
The first chapter, SARscape Quick Start, illustrates the correct settings for the task at hand. The second
chapter, SARscape primary functionalities, explains with the help of practical exercises, how to fill the
processing panels with the parameters required for the basic SARscape functions.
For other software functionalities, such as interferometry or interferometric stacking, the Reader is referred to
dedicated
tutorials.
The
tutorials
and
the
datasets
can
be
downloaded
from
http://sarmap.ch/tutorials/tutorials.html.

Paragraphs like this one, showing a hand on the left side, indicate a practical step
that the user should perform in order to proceed with the tutorial.

This tutorial will use Sentinel data. It will be described how to download these data from Internet. If this is
not possible please use the data contained in the Getting Started folder on our FTP (ftp.sarmap.ch). Please
contact us at support@sarmap.ch to get login credentials.
The Sentinel satellites are owned by the European Union, there are part of the Copernicus program. They
have been developed and are operated by ESA (100% of the operations funding comes from the EU).

SARscape Quick Start

Install SARscape
Before installing SARscape, please make sure you are logged in as an Administrator, that you have enough
free disk space on your C: drive (about 1.5 GB) and that all other applications are closed.
Starting with SARscape 5.2 the same installer can be used on both 32 and 64 bit systems.
In the Select Additional Tasks tab, please select Install USB dongle driver if you are using a dongle as a
license and select Install Intel OpenCL CPU-only runtime if you dont have the OpenCL CPU driver (in order
to run OpenCL code on CPU, this flag is selected by default) (Figure 1). For further information, please visit
http://sarmap.ch/ocl/opencl-install.html and http://www.sarmap.ch/ocl/opencl-faq.html.

Figure 1: Select Additional Tasks tab during SARscape installation.

Uninstall SARscape
Before uninstalling SARscape, please make sure you are logged in as an Administrator and that all other
applications are closed. This procedure will uninstall SARscape from your computer.

The steps to perform are the following:

Open the Windows Control Panel

Click on Uninstall a program (Figure 2)
Right click on the SARscape version you want to uninstall and click on Uninstall (Figure 3)

Figure 2: Uninstall a program in the Windows Control Panel

Figure 3: List of all installed programs. Right click on the SARscape version you want to uninstall and click on
Uninstall.

ENVI environment and preferences

The ENVI standard interface is divided into three parts (Figure 4): the Layer Manager (left), Workspace
(center) and Toolbox (right), as detailed in the following.

Note:

Layer Manager: Shows all the current layers. It is possible to check/uncheck each layer in order
to make it visible/hidden.
View:
The layers checked in the layer manager are shown here. From here it is
possible to pan and zoom into/out from the shown layers.
Note: The view can be split into several views using ENVIs Views menu.
Toolbox:
The toolbox contains all ENVIs tools divided in folders

If SARscape is correctly installed it appear as a folder in the toolbox.

Search the toolbox

Toolbox

View

Layer Manager

SARscape

Figure 4: ENVI window, divided in Layer Manager (left), View (centre) and Toolbox (right) with SARscape
and the search field.

Tip:

If the name of a module is known (SARscape or ENVI), it is possible to type the name (or part of
it) in the Search the toolbox field at the top of the tool (Figure 4). Then only the modules
containing the searched name are shown in the toolbox. Delete the search string to show all the
modules again.

Before starting with the processing, the Default Input Directory, the Output directory as well as the Temporary
Directory have to be set in the ENVI preferences. This is helpful in order to have immediately the right
suggestion for the path in the dialog boxes once opened. ENVI preferences are located in File -> Preferences
(Figure 5).

Setting an easy reachable folder as Temporary Directory allows you to quickly access to the
intermediary results of SARscapes workflows if delete temporary files is set to false

Tip:

Figure 5. ENVI Preferences / Directories panel. Suggested I/O and temp directories.

In order to go further, please set ENVIs I/O and Temporary directories. Please
note: We suggest to set these directories on a local hard drive where you have
read/write privileges.

SARscape preferences
Before starting with the processing, it is important for the SARscape preferences to be correctly set according
to the type of processing to be performed.
Several Preference-sets are ready to be used in SARscape and can be loaded using the top-left button in
SARscape preferences (Figure 6). Subsequently they can be modified, adapted and saved for future use.

Note:

SENTINEL IW has a dedicated preference set called SENTINEL TOPSAR. This has to be used in
case of interferometric processing with Sentinel IW data.

Once a Preference-set is chosen, it is important to modify the Directories and batch file name tab. First of
all, Working directory and Batch File Name have to be chosen. This allows to know where the working files
and the Batch file are stored on the computer. Please make sure you set directories where you have read/write
privileges.
The Working Directory is used to store some information about SARscape processes such as Log and Trace
file (as described in the .Log, Trace and Error report section). The use of the Batch file and the possibility to
perform parallel processing using different working directories will be explained in the Batch Processing
section.
The other directories have to be set if you have created a local (or local network) copy of DEM files or Orbit
files.
Note:

For Sentinel-1 data, in particular for interferometric processing, it is strongly recommended to

use precise or restituted orbit files. These data can be downloaded from this link:
https://qc.sentinel1.eo.esa.int/

Figure 6. SARscape Default panel. The Load Preferences button in the upper left part allows loading
preferences set that can be chosen from a list.

If you dont plan to use interferometry with Sentinel data, you can leave the
General preferences.
Click on Directories and batch file name on the Preference List on the left and set
the working directory and batch file name in your local hard drive (Figure 6).
Click then on General parameters on the left and choose 20 m as Cartographic
Grid Size (Figure 7). This value will be automatically used in order to generate the
multilooking factor in one of the following exercises

Figure 7: General parameters in SARscape preferences. Cartographic Grid Size set to 20 m

OpenCL Platform and Devices

At the top of the General Parameters in SARscape preferences, two fields called OpenCL Platform Name and
OpenCL Device name are present.
An OpenCL platform is a (vendor specific) OpenCL implementation and an OpenCL device is the actual
processor performing the calculations. Each OpenCL platform can see one or more OpenCL Devices. For some
SARscape tools, GPU support is provided. To carry out the processing using your GPU, choose it from the
OpenCL Device Name list.
By selecting different devices in different working directories, it is possible to launch parallel processing on
different devices at the same time. Please refer to the Parallel Batch Processing chapter.

SARscape environment and modules

All the tools and modules of SARscape are found in an ENVIs toolbox folder, usually located on the right side
of the ENVI window. Clicking on the plus symbol near the SARscape folder will show all the subfolders
containing the different SARscape modules (Figure 8).

Figure 8: SARscape folders containing SARscape tools in ENVIs Toolbox

SARscape Panel
A standard SARscape panel is composed by several tabs. Not all of these are always present. The panel of the
Geocoding is used here as an example as it contains all the tabs.

Input Files

The files needed by the processing have to be insert here (Figure 9).
Unless otherwise specified, these files are mandatory. Valid entries
include a list of one or more file names or slc_list products. The right
mouse button opens a contextual menu with the following entries:

Add
Adds one or more files to the list.

Remove
Removes one or more files from the list.
Note: in some tools, like interferometric refinement and re-flattening,
when the first input is inserted, the following input files are
automatically completed assuming that the filename was never
changed during the processing and that the default extensions were
used.
Optional Files
These files, which are not mandatory, can be used to refine or to help
the processing (Figure 10).
DEM/Cartographic System In this tab, a DEM has to be entered or a cartographic system has to
be selected (Figure 11). If a DEM is provided, its cartographic system
is automatically selected.

10

Figure 9: Input Files tab in the Geocoding panel. It contains an input file list. Clicking on the right mouse
button makes the context menu show up, containing the Add and Remove buttons.

Figure 10: Optional Files tab of the Geocoding Panel. The Geometry GCP File can be used to correct orbital
information (please refer to the GCP manual http://sarmap.ch/tutorials/GCP_Manual.pdf).

11

Figure 11: DEM/Cartographic System tab of the Geocoding panel. In most cases, it is mandatory to select a
DEM File or an output Projection (in this case, a Reference Height has to be defined).

Parameters

Output Files

This tab contains the parameters used for the processing. For a simple
processing, the parameters contained in Principal Parameters can
be used (Figure 12, left). Advanced parameters can be set from the
Other parameters tab (Figure 12, right).
This tab contains the output files. In most cases, the output files
appear automatically in the path string or in the list. A right click on
the list opens a contextual menu with the following entries (Figure
13):

Edit
Edit the path and filename of a selected
entry.

Remove
Remove one or more files from the list.

Change Output Directory Changes the output

directory of the whole list

Change File Extensions

Changes the extension of all
the files in the list with a new one. Note: the
new extension should begin with the
underscore. The actual extension will be
replaced.

12

Figure 12: Parameters tab of the Geocoding panel. The parameters set to modify can be changed as shown
in the image in order to have access to Advanced Parameters.

Figure 13: Output Files tab of the Geocoding panel. It contains an output file list. A click on the right mouse
button shows the context menu containing the Edit, Remove, Change Output Directories and Change
File Extensions buttons as shown in the figure.

13

Inside the panel, mainly two buttons are used to fill the fields:
This button opens a file browser window allowing the user to browse and select the file to be inserted.
This button allows creating the file that has to be inserted calling the proper tool (a functionality
available for GCP Creation and DEM Extraction). After the creation of the file, the path is automatically
inserted in the correct field.
Most of SARscapes panels display the following four buttons at the bottom (Figure 14):

(Help)
Store Batch

Exec
Close

The help page of the current panel is opened in the default browser.
The processing step is stored in the batch list. The batch browser
button allows to load the batch processing list. For further
information, please check the Batch Processing chapter.
The processing step is executed.
The window will be closed.

Figure 14: Buttons at the bottom of a typical SARscape panel.

SARscape Workflow
SARscape workflows are intended to simplify the procedure of filling the different processing panels with the
appropriate information (i.e. files and parameters).
This chapter provides a description applicable to most workflow processing panels, although some interfaces
may require more detailed information about specific files, parameters or settings, which are not considered
here.
Note:

The Store Batch button is not available for workflows.

Note:

SARscape workflows are not available in the ENVI Classic interface.

A SARscape workflow is composed by 3 main steps: the input step, the parameter step(s) and the output
stepas detailed further in the bullet list below. The name of the current step appears below the Workflow title
and it is highlighted in the step list on the left (Figure 16). In some workflows, it is necessary to insert GCPs
during the workflow (Figure 15 bottom-left).

14

Input

Parameters

This part of the processing chain is dedicated to the input files and
principal parameters required by the workflow. In the different tabs it
is possible to enter all mandatory inputs. The following three tabs are
available in this section (Figure 15 top-left):
Input File: The name and location of the input files are
entered either as single files or as file list.
DEM/Cartographic System: This tab allows either
defining the output cartographic reference system, entering
the reference Digital Elevation Model or choose an external
one to download through the Digital Elevation Model
extraction tool. This information will be considered in
processes such as the Geocoding, the Interferogram
Generation, the Interferometric Digital Elevation Model
Workflow and others.
Parameters: The principal parameters of the processing
chain to be entered.
(Figure 15 top-right) The interface is structured in parts, showing the
name of the steps that will be performed in the workflow. By selecting
one of the sections (e.g. "Coregistration", "Filtering", "Flattening",
etc.), the appropriate parameters will show up in the dialog. In order
to allow both an easy use (for beginners) and a full interaction with
all processing parameters (for advanced users), two ways are
provided to define the processing parameter of each workflow step:
1. The name and location of the output files are entered either
as single files, as a file list or output root name. More than
one output option might be required Selecting the "Principal
Parameters" from the pull down menu, the most important
(and easier to understand) values are visualized with the
possibility to modify them. Once this has been done the
processing step can be executed without changing any of the
additional parameters, which are listed in the menu (see the
following paragraph). Any parameter, which is not
specifically set by the user, is automatically retrieved by the
program from the currently active Preferences. This is the
suggested approach for beginners.
2. Beneath the "Principal Parameters", in the pull down menu,
there are several groups of advanced parameters, which can
be loaded and modified (e.g. coregistration, filtering,
flattening, others, etc.). The name of each group is based on
the parameters, which it contains. Experienced users, who
already have a good knowledge of SARscape, often prefer to
check and possibly tune all available parameters; this can be
useful to tailor the processing to the peculiarities of a specific
dataset.
It is worth to mention that the original parameters, which are shown
within each interface when this is first opened, are the same as those
written in the currently active Preferences. If one or more parameters
are modified in any specific processing interface, these new values
are adopted for the subsequent processing, while the values written

15

Output Files

in the currently active Preferences remain unchanged. In other words,

the Preferences are not affected by changes applied to the processing
interfaces.
This is the part in the processing chain dedicated to the output files
and options (Figure 15 bottom-right):
Output File: The name and location of the output files are
entered either as single files, as file list or output root name.
More than one output option might be required.
Delete Temporary Files: To erase all the intermediate
temporary files generated during the processing steps. This
information will be considered in processes such as the
Digital Elevation Model extraction, Geocoding, Interferogram
Generation, the Interferometric Digital Elevation Model
Workflow and others. If Temporary Files are not deleted,
they can be found in ENVIs temporary directory.

The following buttons can be found at the bottom of each SARscape workflow (Figure 16):

Preview

By setting this flag, at the end of each processing step the

intermediate outputs are made available for visualisation/analysis.

help

The help page of the current panel is opened in the default browser.

save

Clicking this button allows to save and close the workflow at the
current step. After saving the workflow window will be closed.

open
< Back

Next >
Next >>>

Close

Clicking this button allows to open a previously saved workflow

The workflow is brought to the previous step in the chain. This action
can also be performed by selecting the desired section in the
processing window: if the parameters are changed, all the temporary
files generated by the subsequent steps will be erased and the process
restarted from the selected section.
The workflow is moved to the following step in the chain.
By clicking this button all the steps are performed in sequence and it
is not necessary to use the "Next >" button. Make sure that all settings
in all the steps are correctly set before starting with this processing.
If a GCP file is required, the workflow will stop at this step.
The window will be closed.

16

Figure 15: Workflow panel sections. Top-left: Input step. Top-right: parameter step. Bottom-left: GCP
selection. Bottom-right: Output step.

17

Current step

Current step parameters

Preview

Open/save buttons

Navigation buttons

Figure 16: Example of InSAR DEM workflow at the Interferogram Generation step. The most important
sections of the panel are explained here.

Generate Tiff
Activating Generate Tiff will generate a Quick View Tiff file, which can be easily opened by most image
viewers (for example Windows Photo Viewer). This can be done in three ways:

In SARscape preferences>General Parameters. If Generate Tiff is set to true here, this will be done
in all SARscape processing steps.
Under Global in the Parameters Tab in SARscapes panels (Figure 17).
Using the Generate Tiff tool found in SARscape>General Tools>Data Export>Generate Tiff in
ENVIs toolbox (Figure 18).

18

Figure 17: Make Tiff flag in the Global Parameters of the Geocoding panel.

Figure 18: Location of the Generate Tiff tool in ENVIs toolbox.

SARscape Extensions and file browser filter

Files in SARscape are always composed by three separates files.

Binary data (usually float, complex and byte) containing the data matrix.
.sml SARscape ASCII header containing all information mandatory for the data processing.
.hdr corresponding to the ENVI header format. This enables the product compatibility within ENVI.

19

It is important to point out that the binary data have no Operating System (OS) extension (using the dot
symbol). For the OS they are simply files without extension of file file type (Figure 19). SARscape adds
extensions using the underscore symbol (e.g. _slc, _pwr, _geo). This nomenclature helps to rapidly find a file
of a certain type when a filter in the file browser is active. However, the real file type is saved in the .sml file
and the binary file can have any extension or no extension at all.
A list of extensions can
Format>Nomenclature.

be

found

in

SARscapes

help

selecting

General

Information>Data

Figure 19: _slc file with the .sml and .hdr header. Note how the two header files are recognized as HDR and
SML files by the OS (Type column) whereas _slc (having no dot for the extension) is recognized simply as
a file.

As stated before, SARscape uses filters in the file browser window in order to help selecting the correct files.
The filter can be off (Figure 20), it can display a set of default extensions (Figure 21) or it can be customized
by the User (Figure 22). In the latter case, the star symbol is used as a wildcard with the following
interpretation:

When the star is at the beginning of the filter text (*filtertext), only the files with the filename ending
with the filter text are shown.
When the star is at the end of the filter text (filtertext*), only the files with the filename beginning
with the filter text are shown.
When the star is at the beginning and at the end of the filter text (*filtertext*), only the files with the
filter text inside the filename are shown.

20

Figure 20: Filter is off. When the filter tab shows *.* (bottom right corner), then all the files in the selected
directory are shown.

Figure 21: Filter with predefined extensions. Only the files in the selected directory that end with the
extensions in the bottom-right corner (_pwr, _gr, _slc and _fil) are shown.

21

Figure 22: Customized filter. When star symbols are used, it is possible to create a custom filter writing the
filter text in the File name: field. In the example shown in the figure the file names containing VH are
shown. The filters on the bottom right side are ignored.

22

SARscape primary functionalities

After setting the directories and preferences, as described in the previous chapters, it is finally time to start
working with the data. In the following chapters, the basic SARscape functionalities will be explained, walking
the Reader through the steps required to generate a filtered, geocoded Sentinel-1 SAR intensity image. These
involve downloading the SLC data, importing it into SARscape, extracting a DEM for later use, Multilooking,
cutting out an area of interest (sample selection) and finally geocoding.
In the last chapters we will cover Batch Processing and the generation of .Log, Trace and Error reports.

Sentinel Data Download

Data acquired from ESAs Sentinel satellites can be downloaded from a rolling archive on the internet, which
currently stores all the data acquired in the last year. These data can be downloaded in two ways: registering
and following the instructions on the Sentinel Scientific Data Hub (https://scihub.esa.int/dhus/) or registering
on Scihub and using the Download tool provided in SARscapes Data Import module. The latter approach is
detailed below. The Sentinel satellites are owned by the European Union, there are part of the Copernicus
program. They have been developed and are operated by ESA (100% of the operations funding comes from
the EU).

Note:

According to the connection speed, the download of a single image can take up to several hours.

Note:

If you are unable to download the files or you do not have an internet access during the
performing of this tutorial, please download the data in advance from our FTP site where you will
find the acquisition used in this tutorial. Please contact us at support@sarmap.ch to get login
credentials.

Input Files

Optional Files

Parameters
Output Files

Optional input files. In this Tab, reference files can be entered. The
download tool will look for data intersecting the footprint of the
images in this input list.
Geographical Region Shapefile. A geocoded shapefile can be entered
here. The download tool will look for data intersecting the footprint of
the shapefile.
In this tab, the parameters needed to refine the search can be entered
Progress file name. The download tool creates a progress file in order
to keep track of the downloaded data. Images are downloaded in the
same directory.

To start with the download, please open the SENTINEL Data Download found in
SARscape Import Data folder in ENVIs toolbox (Figure 23) and fill the
parameter as shown in Figure 24. No input files or optional files are needed. Please

23

note: You must obtain a username and password by registering on the Sentinels
Scientific Data Hub https://scihub.esa.int/dhus/

Once the progress file in the output files tab is set, click Exec. The following window
should appear (Figure 25). Please wait until the download is complete before
continuing with the tutorial. During this time it is possible to use ENVI or SARscape.
Locate the downloaded data in the folder where the progress file has been set and
unzip the downloaded compressed folder. We suggest to use the Extract here
instead of the extract in folder feature as the length of the path can become too
long. The extracted files should be the following for an SLC product: annotation
folder, measurement folder, preview folder, support folder, a manifest.safe
file and a .pdf file.

Figure 23: Sentinel Download Tool in ENVIs toolbox.

24

Figure 24: Principal Parameters for the download of one Sentinel IW SLC Data acquired over Eastern Greece
on February 16th, 2015. The relative orbit number (ground track) is 29.

Figure 25: Download page for the files found by the Download Tool.

Data Import
The purpose of the Data Import is to convert the data into SARscapes Data Format. It is important to point
out that it is mandatory to use the SARscapes Import Data tool in order to use any data that was not
created with SARscape. Once an image is imported in SARscape using the appropriate Import Data tool, it is
possible to open it in ENVIs view using File -> Open in ENVIs menu bar.

25

SARscape products consist of the following data types:

Binary data (usually float, complex and byte) containing the data matrix.
Two ASCII header files containing ancillary information:
o .sml file, containing all relevant information for the data processing.
o .hdr file, corresponding to the ENVI header format. This enables the product compatibility
within ENVI.

For some sensors, during the import, there is the possibility to insert orbit files. This allows updating the orbital
information already present in the original data with other, more precise, orbital data. It is also possible to
update the orbit after the import using the tools present in General tools>Orbital Correction>Update to
precise orbits.
If the folder containing orbital data is already present on the computer, its path can be added in the SARscape
preferences (Figure 6). In this way, it is not needed to insert the orbital file(s) in the import panel and these
are automatically retrieved by the software from the specified folder.

Note:

For Sentinel-1 data, in particular for interferometric processing, it is strongly recommended to

use precise or restituted orbit files. These can be downloaded from this link:
https://qc.sentinel1.eo.esa.int/

Note:

Some sensors require the user to select manually the data product type in the parameters tab
(Figure 26 shows an example of import ALOS PALSAR).

Note:

If you are unable to download the data for the exercise, or you do not have an internet
connection, please use the gettingstarted.zip dataset containing the sentinel file used in this
exercise. This .zip file can be downloaded from our FTP page, please contact us at
support@sarmap.ch to get login credentials.

26

Figure 26: Parameters tab of Import ALOS PALSAR panel. In this (and other) import panels, it is mandatory
to select the datatype of the files that have to be imported.

As the previously downloaded data are SLC and not RAW, the Import module has to
be chosen instead of the Import and Focusing. The panel is found in Import
Data>SAR Spaceborne>SENTINEL 1.
Unzip the compressed folder containing the SAR data (if not previously done). The
manifest.safe file has to be used as input in the Input File List as shown in Figure
27. The path of an orbit file is optional.
Set Rename the File Using Parameters to TRUE. This will rename the output file
name using the sensor name, the track number, the date and time of the acquisition
and the polarization. In the Other Parameters, select Make Power QL to False
(Figure 28). The power image will be created later in the Multilooking chapter. Right
clicking on the Output File List allows to choose the directory where the imported
file will be saved. Right click on the Output File List and change the output directory
to a convenient one.
Click Exec. Once the import has ended, in the output folder you will find two folders
(one for each polarization) containing the burst. Outside the folders you will find two
_slc_list file (one for each polarization, each one with its .hdr and .sml files)
containing information on all of the bursts.

27

Figure 27: Import Sentinel-1 panel showing the Input Files tab. The manifest.safe file is used as Input File
for Sentinel Data whereas the Orbit Files are optional and not required in this example.

Figure 28: Parameters, Other Parameters Tab of the Import Sentinel-1 panel. Please set Make power QL to
False as it will be created in the Multilooking chapter.

28

Once the import processing has ended, the following files should have been created in the selected output
folder for each polarization (Figure 29 shows the example of VH polarization). Please note that, in case of
Sentinel TOPSAR slc images, the data of each polarization is stored in a folder. Outside the folder, an _slc_list
file (together with ancillary files) keeps track of the information inside the folder.

Note:

The structure of the imported file has to be kept when moving the files. In particular, the _slc_list
(together with all ancillary files) has to be in the same directory as the split_bursts folder.

Figure 29: Imported files for VH polarization.

In case of sensors other than Sentinel IW SLC and Palsar 2 ScanSAR, no subfolders are created. The _slc files
with the associated .sml and .hdr files are present in the selected output directory.

DEM Extraction
An accurate reference Digital Elevation Model (DEM), containing heights above a reference ellipsoid, will
improve the quality of several processing steps, such as geocoding, coregistration and interferometric phase
flattening. If a high resolution DEM is not available, SARscape allows to extract a DEM from a local folder
(GLAS-ICESat and RAMP) or download and extract a DEM from a FTP location or local folder (ACE, GTOPO30
and SRTM). All of these tools are located in the General Tools, under the Digital Elevation Model Extraction
folder (Figure 30).

29

Figure 30: Location of the Digital Elevation Model Extraction tools in ENVIs toolbox.

In addition to these supported DEMs, other DEMs can be imported in SARscape using generic import tools
such as

Import TIFF (in case of TIFF files)

Import ENVI original tool (importing the DEM into ENVI first and saving it in ENVI format).
Import Geocoded Binary paying attention to set the parameters correctly.

In the parameters of the ACE, GTOPO30 and SRTM DEM extraction, it is possible, besides generate slope
which is available for all the DEM extractions, to select coordinate box boundaries, set X and Y grid size,
Replace Dummy With Min and Subtract Geoid.
Replace Dummy With Min replaces all the Dummy values of the resulting DEM with the minimum height
value present. This is helpful when working on coastal areas where the DEM contains Dummy value on water
and the DEM boundaries on water are serrated.
For our exercise, it is possible to download the freely available SRTM-3 C-band DEM. If the web server is online
and no firewall blocks the FTP connection, SARscape will allow the User to automatically download and mosaic
the relevant tiles.
The spatial extension of the DEM to be downloaded can be chosen either by giving one or more reference
images or by giving box coordinates.

Tip:

Some tools, like the interferometric or the geocoding ones, have a binocular button
whick
allows to call the DEM extraction tool directly, and automatically inserts the path of the
downloaded DEM in the panel.

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Tip:

SARscapes WorkFlows can also directly download, import and use a DEM as shown in Figure 31.
The Reference Type has to be changed into Dem Download and then select the desired DEM.
This will be downloaded and imported when clicking Next > or Next >>>.

Figure 31: DEM extraction tool inside of a WorkFlow panel.

Tip:

Download a common reference DEM that covers all geometries and all sensors to be used in the
processing. The tool will automatically download a DEM with an extension covering all input
reference images.

Tip:

If a local repository of SRTM DEM is available, the path can be inserted in the SARscape
preferences as previously described. The software will then automatically look for the data in this
directory instead of downloading in via FTP.

Note:

SRTM DEM is available only on land and between 60N and 56S of latitude and heights are
above the EGM96 geoid. By default, the geoid component is subtracted during the DEM
extraction, resulting in heights above the reference WGS-84 ellipsoid.

Open the DEM Extraction SRTM3 Version 4 panel found in General tools>Digital
Elevation Model Extraction>SRTM-3 Version 4 and insert the previously imported
_slc_list file in the OPTIONAL Reference SR image list in the Input Files Tab. It is
possible use either both polarization. Select the GEO-GLOBAL cartographic system
as shown in Figure 32. Leave all the parameters as default and set the path of the
output DEM file (We use Eastern_Greece_SrtmV4_dem as filename, as shown in
Figure 33)

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Click Exec. Depending on your connection speed, the download can take up to
several minutes. At the end of the processing the DEM will be loaded in ENVIs view
(Figure 34).

Figure 32: DEM/Cartographic System tab in the DEM Extraction panel. Please select GEO-GLOBAL as output
projection.

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Figure 33: Output Files tab in the DEM Extraction panel. Insert Eastern_Greece_SrtmV4_dem as Output
DEM File.

Figure 34: Downloaded SRTM DEM at the end of the DEM extraction process in ENVI view. The white area in
the lower part of the image is the Sea. The SRTM DEM contains no data (NaN values) over the sea.

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Multilooking
A Single Look Complex (SLC) SAR image product provides the highest possible spatial resolution, but its
intensity is affected by speckle, due to the coherent superposition of radar returns from the resolution cell.
Multilook Intensity images may be generated by averaging SLC pixels in the range and/or azimuth dimension,
improving radiometric resolution at the expense of spatial resolution.
The number of looks is a function of pixel spacing in azimuth, pixel spacing in slant range, and incidence angle.
The goal is to obtain a multi-looked image with approximately squared pixels considering the ground range
resolution (and not the pixel spacing in slant range) and the pixel spacing in azimuth. In order to avoid overor under-sampling effects in the geocoded image, it is recommended to generate a multi-looked image
corresponding to approximately the same spatial resolution foreseen for the geocoded image product. The
ground resolution in range is defined as:

sin( )

Example
Sentinel 1 Single Look Complex data are processed with the following parameters:
pixel spacing azimuth
pixel spacing slant range
incidence angle scene centre

= 13.89 m
= 2.33 m
= 38.92

This information is available in the _slc.sml file (_slc_list.sml for Sentinel-1 TOPSAR data) in the following
fields:
[Processing section]PixelSpacingAz
[Processing section]PixelSpacingRg
[ChannelInfo section]IncidenceAngle
The multi-looking factors in range and azimuth will be:
ground resolution = 2.33 m / sin(38.92) = 3.70 m, a multilooking factor of 5 has to be applied and
a range resolution of 18.54 m is reached.
A similar resolution in azimuth is obtained by applying a multilooking factor of 1 (pixel spacing
azimuth multi-looked = 13.89 m).

Open the Multilooking panel, found in Basic>Intensity Processing>Multilooking

and insert the previously imported _slc_list data in the Input File List.
The looks in the parameters should automatically adapt according to the gridsize
decided previously in the SARscape preferences chapter (20m). A pop-up window
should appear (Figure 35).
Right click on the Output File List and change the output directory to a convenient
one. We suggest to use the same directory as the one used for data import, a suffix
_pwr will automatically be added.

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Click Exec. Once the processing has ended, the two multilooked images (one for
each polarization), will show up in ENVI view (Figure 36).

Figure 35: Pop-up appearing after inserting input files in the Multilooking Panel

Figure 36: Result of multilooking opened in ENVI view (_pwr file).

Sample Selection
The Sample Selection is a SARscape tool that allows creating a subset of an image (or a stack of images) in
order to reduce the extent to the area of interest and so reduce the file size and processing time.
The interested region can be selected by giving coordinates (geographic or SAR) or by selecting a Shapefile.
To create a Shapefile go to File New Vector file in ENVI menu and then give a name to the shape
and click OK. When the polygon is drawn, right click and accept. To modify a created vector use Edit Vertex
in ENVIs vector tools found in the toolbar (Figure 37). Please refer to ENVIs guide for further information
about this tool.

35

Figure 37: Edit Vertex in ENVIs vector tools.

Depending on the source file types, two Sample Selection tools are available in SARscapes General Tools
(Figure 38):

Sample Selection SAR Geometry Data

Sample Selection Geographic Data:

Note:

This tool has to be used if the selection has to be

performed on data in SAR geometry (_slc, _slc_list,
_pwr, _gr)
This tool has to be used if the selection is to be
performed on geocoded data (_dem, _disp, )

When using Sample Selection on a Sentinel _slc_list file, the vector has to be created on the
multilooked _pwr image and this _pwr image has to be used as reference file.

Figure 38: Sample Selections tools in ENVIs toolbox.

Sample Selection Geographic Data

After inserting the Input Files in the list, the subset can be created either using a geocoded vector file (.shp)
or giving box geographic coordinates.

36

Make Max Common Area will create a subset considering only the maximum common area between all input
files. This can be useful to compare ascending and descending acquisitions or different sensors.
Use Min and Max Coordinates will create a subset using box coordinates taken from min and max from the
shapefile.

Sample Selection SAR Geometry Data

After inserting the Input Files in the list, the subset can be created using either a vector file (.shp) or giving
box coordinates. If the vector file is geocoded or if the box coordinates are in geographical coordinates, the
Geographical Region check has to be set to TRUE. If the vector file or the box coordinates are in slant
coordinates, the Geographical Region check has to be set to FALSE.
Use Min and Max Coordinates will create a subset using box coordinates taken from min and max from the
shapefile.

Note:

Open the sentinel1_29_20150216_161537047_IW_SIW1_A_VV_slc_pwr image

created in the previous step in the ENVI View. In the ENVI menu click on File
New Vector file and then give a name to the shape and click OK. At this point
it is possible to draw a shapefile, we suggest to use the same region as the one
shown in this example as it is interesting for flood events and the shapefile can be
used for the Basic Tutorial. Right click and accept to finish drawing (Figure 39).
The shape will not be perfectly rectangular. This can be solved using the Use Min
and Max coordinates flag in the parameters (Figure 42). Right click on the shapefile
in the layer manager and click on Save As (Figure 40).
Once the shapefile has been correctly created, the Sample Selection for SAR
geometry data can be opened. It is located in General Tools>Sample
selections>Sample Selection SAR Geometry data. Fill in the panel with the path to
the two _pwr images (one for each polarization) created in the Multilooking step.
In the parameters Tab, make sure that Geographical Region is set to False (as the
shape was acquired in slant geometry) and set the Use Min and Max coordinates
flag to True. The sample selection will then use a perfect rectangular shape that
exploits the min and max coordinates of the previously draw shapefile. Set the output
file list. Note: the suffix _cut will automatically be added before the last extension
name.
Click Exec. Once the processing has ended, the two input files are shown in ENVI
view (Figure 43).

The DEM in the Optional Files Tab is mandatory if the Shapefile is created in geographic
coordinates in order to avoid geolocation errors.

37

Figure 39: Polygon draw on sentinel1_29_20150216_161537047_IW_SIW1_A_VV_slc_pwr image. Right

mouse click and Accept to accept your changes to the polygon.

Figure 40: Right click on the Shapefile in ENVIs Layer manager in order to save it to a convenient folder.

38

Figure 41: Vector file and DEM file in the Optional Files tab of Sample Selection panel.

Figure 42: Parameters tab of the Sample Selection Tool.

39

Figure 43: Cut area opened in ENVI view after the Sample Selection processing has ended.

Now the output image only contains our area of interest. The size is smaller in coverage and therefore disk
size, compared to that of the full frame, which also reduces subsequent processing time.

Geocoding
SAR systems measure the intensity and phase of the transmitted radar pulses following their reflection
(backscatter) from the Earths surface. The data is recorded in a 2D coordinate system (slant-range geometry),
onto which 3D objects on the Earths surface are projected. For several applications, geocoding of the SAR
image is required, i.e. 2D SAR coordinates must be associated to 3D coordinates in a given horizontal and
vertical datum. Furthermore, if the backscattered intensity of different acquisitions needs to be compared, a
radiometric calibration of each image is required, to make the radar intensity independent of the acquisition
geometry and of the SAR processor.
Geocoding and radiometric calibration of the example Sentinel data is carried out as follows.

Open
the
Geocoding
panel,
found
in
Basic>Intensity
Processing>Geocoding>Geocoding and Radiometric Calibration and insert the
previously resampled _cut_pwr data in the Input File List. Insert the DEM
downloaded in the DEM Extraction section and set Radiometric Calibration to True
in the preferences (Figure 44). Set the output file list. Note: the suffix _geo will
automatically be added after the last extension name.

40

Click Exec. Once the process has ended, ENVI will automatically load a meta file
containing all the files of the output file list. You can close this file and load the
resulting _geo files manually. When the files are loaded, please change the stretch
to SARscape stretch (Figure 45).
To contextualize this image, it is possible to load ENVIs coastlines found in the menu
File Open World Data Coastlines (Figure 46). Now the image is shown
together with the loaded coastlines (Figure 47). It is also possible to open the created
.kml files to project the resulting _geo image on Google Earth (Figure 49)

Figure 44: Principal Parameters of the Geocoding panel. Please set Radiometric Calibration to True.

41

Figure 45: One of the two geocoded images opened in ENVI view. Please select SARscape stretch in the
toolbar.

Figure 46: How to open Coastlines in ENVI

42

Figure 47: Geocoded image and ENVIs coastlines.

The following files are created in the output directory containing calibrated and geocoded SAR data (Figure
48). If a DEM in GEO-GLOBAL (lat-lon grid) has been chosen to perform the geocoding, a _geo_ql.kml and a
_geo_ql.tif files are created for each output of the geocoding in the output directory. This allows to have a
Google Earth quick look of the outputs.
If no Google Earth .kml file is present, it is possible to create one using the Generate Google Earth KML File
tool found in ENVIs toolbox under SARscape>General Tools>Data Export>Generate Google Earth KML File.

43

Figure 48: Results of geocoding processing showing the two geocoded (_geo) images together with the
ancillary files. Note the two .kml files that are automatically created if the DEM used to geocode is in
geographic coordinates (lat-lon).

Figure 49: .kml file of the VH Geocoded image opened in Google Earth

44

Batch Processing
Batch processing allows performing several checks and editing actions in a previously stored processing
sequence. A "Store Batch" function is available in each processing panel. In addition, provided different work
directories are specified, this function allows two or more processing runs to be carried out at the same time.

Create Batch File

A Batch File Name has to be entered in the SARscape preferences (see SARscape preferences section).

Store batch
All the SARscape processing panels show a store batch button. By pressing it, SARscape stores all the
input/output files, variables and panel parameters to a Batch Step. A popup will display the step numbers.

Batch Browser
Clicking on the Batch Browser, SARscape will open the batch file located in the batch path (see SARscape
preferences) and the Batch browser Window is shown. Once the Batch Processing is started, the steps are
performed top to bottom. The Ignore Errors and Continue Batch flag allows the process to skip possible errors
and continue with the execution of subsequent steps. In case of error, no error message will be shown. If this
flag is not selected, the process will stop at the first error and an error message will be shown.

Batch Steps
[1] and [2]

Parameters of the selected

topic (Coregistration in step
[1] in this case)
Control buttons

Figure 50: Batch browser window with the list of the steps on the left, the parameters on the right and control
buttons on the bottom-right corner.

45

Control buttons for the batch browser are located in the bottom right corner of the batch browser window:

Saves the current batch processing chain

Opens a batch file (.sav)

Runs the current batch processing chain

Resets the current Batch Session

Opens the batch processing Help

Run batch
Before runing a batch processing, check that only the steps that are intended to be processed are activated.
Active steps are shown by a white square with green border , whereas inactive steps are shown by a red
square . To switch from active to inactive (and vice versa): right mouse click on the step and then select
on/off (Figure 51). By selecting delete the step will be deleted and will not be loaded again.

Figure 51: Context menu after right click on a Batch step.

Once all the needed steps are selected, click the

from the left).

button to run the batch process (third control button

If the different steps are dependent one to another, then it is suggested to uncheck the Ignore Errors and
Continue Batch flag. If, instead, the steps are independent, then it is suggested to check this flag, so that if
an error occurs, the other steps can be executed anyway.

Note

When a batch processing chain is running it is not possible to launch other process, unless the
working directory is changed (see Parallel Batch Processing paragraph).

Modify a step
To modify a step, click on the plus symbol near the step name: all the parameters set will be shown with a
symbol. Clicking on each parameter set will show all the parameters that can be modified.

Note

Press enter on the keyboard after each change to the batch parameters in order to ensure that
the changes take place.

46

Batch Chain
If the filename of each output is known, it is possible provide these as inputs to subsequent steps. This allows
creating a chain where each output is the input of the following step. In this way, it is possible to build a long
processing chain and let it run over night or weekends. This is useful in case of very large datasets or heavy
processing, as well as when the same needs to be rerun using different parameters.
In Figure 52 and Figure 53, is an example of processing chain that connects together the processing performed
in the exercises above.

It is important that the filename of the output is correctly known. If not, the subsequent step will
not find the input files and the whole chain will crash. Please also note that if the Sentinel Import
(or any other import) has the Rename The File Using Parameters check set to true, the input
file of the subsequent step has to be exactly the name that SARscape will give when automatically
renaming the output. If this cannot be foreseen, the import step can be separated from the other
steps.

Tip:

For a processing chain containing several steps, it is possible to create a batch file where you
simply have to change the input of the first step and the output of the last step. The filenames
of the internal steps can be always the same and used only to connect the different process (such
as output_1 and so on).
An improved version, using IDL scripting, can be found in SARscape IDL
scripting>Examples>Interferometry using sav where an example is shown and described.

Multilooking [3]

_pwr

Geocoding [5]

The

_slc_list

_cut_pwr_geo

Import [1]

_cut_pwr

manifest
.safe

_dem

Sample Selection [4]

DEM Extraction [2]

.shp

Note:

Figure 52: Workflow of the processing chain. The number in the square brackets is the one assigned to the
batch step as shown in Figure 53.

47

Figure 53: Batch Browser Window showing the five steps leading from import to geocoding. Note: in this
example, the Ignore Errors and Continue Batch check is unchecked. Each process is dependent of the
previous one, so in this case it makes no sense to continue the batch in case of errors.

Parallel Batch Processing

After a batch processing is started, it is possible to change the working directory and the batch name in the
SARscape preferences/directories, create another batch processing chain and run it in parallel. It is also
possible to set a different OpenCL device for each working directory by selecting it in the SARscape preferences
General Parameters and thus run different processes on different OpenCL devices at the same time.

Tip

This functionality is useful in order to prepare several parallel processes that can be run for
instance over night or over weekends without the need of operator intervention.

Note

Before starting a new batch processing, make sure to close the batch browser window.

Note

It is not recommended to launch several parallel batch processing on low performance computers,
since parallel processes will anyhow use shared resources (CPUs, GPUs and RAM).

.Log, Trace and Error report

In the SARscape Administration Folder it is possible to view a Log and a Trace file. The Log file shows all the
processing related information. Since the information is continuously appended the Log file, and not deleted
after every processing run, this file can become very large unless its content is removed from time to time
using the delete button. The Trace file instead shows detailed information about the latest process executed.
This file is overwritten any time a new process is launched
It is also possible to save an error report by clicking on save error report. The output .txt file store all the
error relevant information. Once an error is reported, the program automatically initiates a procedure to save
the "Error Report".
This functionality can also be used to store the processing information (Log + Trace files), which are relevant
to the last step executed.

48

Note

When saving the "Error Report" be sure that other SARscape processes have not been executed.
The problem giving the problem has to be the last process run before creating the error report.
The "Error Report" has to be sent to your distributor for a further investigation and solution of
the problem.

Clean Working Directory

The Clean Working Directory tool, found in the Administrator folder (Figure 54) will delete the current working
directory. A pop-up will appear asking if you want to delete the forking directory located at the given address.
In case folders were stored in the working directory (e.g. SRTM_DEM_DIR, GTOPO30_DIR, etc.), they are not
removed.
Note

This action is irreversible.

Figure 54 Clean Working Directory tool in ENVIs toolbox.

49

About SARscape
By clicking on the About SARscape (Figure 55) a pop-up will appear (Figure 56) showing information about
the current SARscape version as well as the version ID (and eventually the date of the installed patch if
present). If a problem occurs, please provide the full version ID to the sarmap team. In addition, make sure
with your SARscape distributor that you are using the latest version with the latest patch available.

Figure 55: About SARscape in ENVIs toolbox.

50

Figure 56: About SARscape pop up showing SARscapes version ID and other information.

51