Level 3
I’m going to process satellite data myself!
This section provides practical resources for individuals looking to develop hands-on skills and knowledge in EO and RS. It includes online courses, tutorials, case studies, and data recipes to help you apply theoretical knowledge to practical situations, as well as links to data providers and some popular software.
Just a reminder: you are welcome to contact MAGIC team through Helpdesk, [email protected] with any questions regarding EO data access, selecting and setting up software, as well as feedback on the content of this page.
Practice-Oriented Courses, Training Materials, Data Recipes
NASA ARSET provides training and training materials on many aspects of EO data applications. Intermediate and Advanced level courses are usually focused on solving real-life problems using online services and desktop applications.
Copernicus Research and User Support training archive is a useful resource that offers a range of free, online training materials focused on Earth Observation (EO). The materials are aimed at providing users with the skills and knowledge necessary to access and utilize data from the Copernicus Sentinel satellites.
ASF composed a collection of SAR Data Recipes
EO data providers
A wide range of satellite data, derived datasets, and services are available publicly.
EO browser service for searching and viewing Sentinels
Copernicus Open Access Hub - Sentinels search and download
Copernicus services – Entry point to the various Copernicus raw and derived datasets
EarthExplorer – USGS archive, providing mainly Landsat data records, also the source of historical aerial and satellite images
EUMETSAT - data viewer for EUMETAT-produced data (includes Meteop, Sentinel-3 and other missions)
EarthData or EarthDataSearch is the main portal for searching and downloading NASA datasets. Most of the datasets could be viewed or accessed through other services (WorldView, for example), but it is a valid point to start from.
ASF Vertex search service provides access to various ongoing (Sentinel-1, SMAP) and historical (ERS, ALOS) radar missions, and has some unique capabilities (like computing baselines between scenes) and datasets (like Sentinel-1 Interferograms).
Google Earth Engine (GEE) is a powerful EO processing and visualization tool, containing lots of datasets with the support of a custom community catalog. To start with, here are Elena Field’s Introduction to GEE (internal link) and support materials for this talk.
Polarview is a specialized resource developed by BAS for access to EO data fitted for sea ice monitoring.
In addition to publicly available data, commercial satellite providers also offer EO data and value-added services, providing usually higher spatial resolution satellite images and on-demand monitoring of specific areas. You can review the imagery availability through the links below and contact MAGIC to order the data: Maxar, Airbus, Planet, Iceye, Satellogic, MDA (Radarsar), DLR (TerraSAR-X).
Tools, Desktop applications
QGIS – Free open-source desktop GIS. If you are new to it, join the next MAGIC’s training on QGIS, or study this tutorial.
ArcGIS – contact MAGIC for obtaining a license (Helpdesk, [email protected])
GDAL – is an essential tool for raster data processing, though could be tough to learn. If you feel a necessity to use it, read first the series of ‘ Gentle Introduction to GDAL’, then refer to official documentation and tutorials. If you are still interested – review the Mastering GDAL course.
ESA SNAP – developed by EAS software for EO data processing and analysis, especially suited for SAR data. You can check the official tutorials, and ask your questions on a helpful community forum.
Orfeo Toolbox is an open-source EO processing package, especially handy when working with VHR data. Could be used as a standalone application, QGIS tool, or Python package. Tip: Start studying it from the Recipes section.
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