Steps to process sentinel-1 data, what is the proper order?

Microwave Toolbox
#1

Hello,
I have been trying to figure out how to properly pre-process Sentinel-1 data so I can correctly see the backscatter values and I am getting confused about the proper steps to take.

From this thread looks like the steps should be:

  1. Apply orbit file
  2. GRD border noise removal (optional)
  3. Thermal noise removal
  4. Speckle filtering
  5. Radiometric calibration
  6. Terrain correction
  7. Subset (can be applied earlier)

From this tutorial from the ESA:

  1. Calibrate the data
  2. Multilooking (optional)
  3. Speckle Filtering
  4. Terrain Correction
  5. Conversion to dB scale
    this one doesn’t say to apply an orbit file or filter thermal noise (but maybe that is Sentinel-1 specific?)

Any advice on what the proper order of operations should be?

#2

the links you have posted don’t seem to be correct. Can you please check?

Anyhow, the Orbit file operator improves the geolocation accuracy of products, but unless you want to do interferometric analyses you can skip it because the data is correctly geocoded during the Terrain Correction. About the Thermal Noise: It doesn’t harm to remove it but it depends on the application if you really need it.

#3

Oops, edited the links. I had linked the page where I was saving resources to look at.

Thank you for clarifying that, that’s a big help. I was very confused on what steps you need and what is optional.

#4

No problem, this is relatable. Especially as there is no ultimate procedure, so it’s legit to exchange about the role and effects of the different steps.