FAQ Cosmo-SkyMed
- Am I allowed to register on www.cosmo-skymed.it?
- Only registered Institutional users can enter www.cosmo-skymed.it website upon ASI authorization. Any other user should contact e-GEOS (info.cosmo@e-geos.it) in order to gain access to the COSMO-SkyMed data and services.
- How can I consult COSMO-SkyMed
catalogue and order a product (archived or new acquisition)?
- At the moment, COSMO-SkyMed users can contact e-GEOS (info.cosmo@e-geos.it) to gain access to data and services. The on-line COSMO-SkyMed catalogue is available at www.e-geos.it, where is possible make the registration and browse archived images.
- How much time should I wait for a new
acquisition?
- The maximum response time, from order
submission to product delivery is 72 hours with the 4 satellites
configuration and no constraints related to the acquisition geometry.
This implies the planning of the first opportunity of available
acquisition.
In the case of orders with geometric constraints like limited range of look angles, the acquisition can be performed only in correspondence of the in required opportunity causing delays of the product also higher than 72 hours.
The delay also increases beyond 72 hours in case of complex orders, as for instance wide areas of interest, whose coverage requires more than an acquisition.
In case of emergency, the system is currently able to accept requests for single images within 16.30 UTC to try to acquire an image during the first part of the acquisition window. In these cases the minimum response time is 26 hours (Routine Mode).
In case of emergency, the system is currently able to accept simple requests (for single images) till 16:30 UTC for images acquisition in the first semi-horizon of the acquisition time-window. Under these exceptional cases, the minimum response time is 26 hours (Routine Mode) for actually planned and acquired DTO(s).
- The maximum response time, from order
submission to product delivery is 72 hours with the 4 satellites
configuration and no constraints related to the acquisition geometry.
This implies the planning of the first opportunity of available
acquisition.
- What should I do in case I'm having a
problem in ordering/using COSMO-SkyMed products?
- Users of COSMO-SkyMed are invited to contact the e-Geos Technical Support by mean of the Customer Service or sending an e-mail to: info.cosmo@e-geos.it.
- If I open a trouble ticket (sending a
User Anomaly Form) , what is the expected time to receive an official
answer to my problem?
- Once the e-GEOS Technical Support has verified the existence of a real technical problem (within 1-2 working days from the receipt of the Customer anomaly communication), they will submit an official Trouble Ticket to the COSMO-SkyMed Support Engineering Team. The acknowledge from the Support Engineering Team with the anomaly confirmation/refusal shall be usually provided within one working week from notification by e-GEOS Technical Support.
- What is the difference between SCS_B
and SCS_U products (for SAR experts)?
- The processing of SCS_U product
differs from that one of the SCS_B product for the following features:
1. a not weighted processing is performed, that is any windowing isnt applied on the processed bandwidth;
2. radiometric equalization (in terms of compensation of the range antenna pattern and incidence angle) is not performed; hence, only compensation of the antenna transmitter gain and receiver attenuation and range spreading loss is applied.
SCS (Level 1A) products must be considered like products for SAR expert users; other users should require COSMO-SkyMed products with a processing level 1B (not georeferred products), 1C (georeferred products) or 1D (terrain corrected).
The SCS products (level 1A) must be considered as oriented to "expert" SAR Users; it is recommended to all other Users to request level 1C (geo-referenced) and/or 1D (terrain corrected) COSMO-SkyMed products.
- The processing of SCS_U product
differs from that one of the SCS_B product for the following features:
- How can I order a higher level product?
- Registered Institutional Users can
order High Level Services accessing to web site www.cosmo-skymed.it and selecting the required service form COSMO-SkyMed
Services list.
Commercial Customers can require High Level Service to Customers Service or by an e-mail to info.cosmo@e-geos.it.
In any case, before ordering High Level services, Customers are recommended to read section 2.0.2 ("Services for the generation of SAR high level and speckle filtered products") of the help on-line available at web site www.cosmo-skymed.it, where technical constraints of each High Level services are reported.
- Registered Institutional Users can
order High Level Services accessing to web site www.cosmo-skymed.it and selecting the required service form COSMO-SkyMed
Services list.
- What is the maximum size of my Area of
Interest that I can order and be sure that it will be acquired with
only one image?
- The maximum size of an Area of
Interest that the user can order and be sure that it will be acquired
with only one image SPOTLIGHT-2 is 600 meters, e.g. defining a circle
with 300 m radius.
As the COSMO-SkyMed system uses discrete beams, sufficient conditions to acquire the Area of Interest with a single image are the following:
Availability of at least one coverage of this area exists within the validity interval of the request;
the size of the Area of Interest is less or equal to the minimum overlap between all the consecutive beam couples. In detail, minimum overlap depends on satellite sensor mode and its value for each sensor mode can be summarized in the following table, in case of nominal swath parameters:
Sensor Mode
Minimum overlap (Km)
SPOTLIGHT -2
0.6
HIMAGE
1.3
WIDEREGION
1.0
HUGEREGION
1.0
PINGPONG
0.7
If a customer needs an area greater (i.e. a SPOTLIGHT-2 with radius 3 km), it is possible that there are not beams able to guarantee the coverage of the requested area with a single product. In this case, it is better to ask the feasibility at the Customer Service.
Of course orders with sizes greater than nominal limits (i.e SPOTLIGHT-2 with radius 7 km) need more than 1 scene to be completed.
- The maximum size of an Area of
Interest that the user can order and be sure that it will be acquired
with only one image SPOTLIGHT-2 is 600 meters, e.g. defining a circle
with 300 m radius.
- What are the formats available for the
COSMO-SkyMed products (standard and higher)?
- COSMO-SkyMed products are available in
the following formats:
- HDF5 (Level 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D)
- TIFF (Level 1B)
- GEOTIFF (Level 1C e 1D)
- JPEG (Level 1B, 1C, 1D)
- COSMO-SkyMed products are available in
the following formats:
- What Image Processing software are
able to read COSMO-SkyMed products?
- The standard format of COSMO-SkyMed
products is HDF5; to open this format it is necessary to have an Image
Processing software which has been adapted to this format. A
non-exhaustive list of these IP software includes:
- hdf5 viewer available at http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
- ENVI 4.4 and higher versions
- SARScape
- Erdas Image 9.3.2 and higher versions
- SocetSet 5.5
- Photomod
- Gamma software
- ESA's NEST 3C and Derby 3.0
Level 1B-1C-1D products are also available in TIFF/GeoTIFF formats, which cam be read by almost every IP software that can handle 16 bit files (e.g. Photoshop).
- The standard format of COSMO-SkyMed
products is HDF5; to open this format it is necessary to have an Image
Processing software which has been adapted to this format. A
non-exhaustive list of these IP software includes:
- What is the price of a COSMO-SkyMed
product?
- The COSMO-SkyMed data access is
regulated by COSMO-SkyMed data distribution policy, in which civilian
users (institutional and commercial) and military users share the
resources of the system by following the appropriate rules.
ASI supports the use for scientific and institutional (the recording of scientific and institutional users follows a specific process, administered by ASI), while e-Geos has the exclusive worldwide sales of data services and COSMO-SkyMed.INSTITUTIONAL USERS
The COSMO-SkyMed website (www.cosmo-skymed.it ) for scientific and institutional users can use the list of services, services for new acquisitions, product orders.
The list of products is available on both the COSMO-SkyMed website, and the ASI website (www.asi.it ).COMMERCIAL USERS
e-GEOS is the exclusive worldwide reseller of COSMO-SkyMed data and services. On its web site (www.e-geos.it) there is a product Price List in pdf format. Special conditions for large order volumes or other ad-hoc requirements are available on a case-by-case through the e-GEOS Commercial Team. Please, contact the e-GEOS Customer Service at info.cosmo@e-geos.it to get more details.
- The COSMO-SkyMed data access is
regulated by COSMO-SkyMed data distribution policy, in which civilian
users (institutional and commercial) and military users share the
resources of the system by following the appropriate rules.
- Why if I order a COSMO-SkyMed
StripMap HIMAGE over an area which is 80 Km long, I am receiving 3
products? How many images will I pay for such an order?
- COSMO-SkyMed products are sold calculating the number of "equivalent scenes". For instance a StripMap HIMAGE is nominally 40 kmx40 Km, and therefore an 80 kmx40 Km strip is composed by 2 equivalent scenes. The Customer will be charged the price of 2 equivalent scenes. It has been noticed that the COSMO-SkyMed production system can generate 3 products to deliver the 80 Km long strip, to guarantee the total coverage of the area of interest (the produced scenes should have a sufficient overlap between them). In this case (80 kmx40 Km strip) 3 overlapping scenes will be delivered, but the Customer will pay only 2 scenes.
- What is the maximum area covered by a
Mosaiking product? What are the system requirements for Mosaiking
product?
- Mosaicking of SAR products is allowed
for the maximum coverage defined listed in the following table:
Acquisition mode
Maximum coverage
(Km2)
Geometric resolution
(m x m)
Pixel Spacing
(m x m)
Enhanced Spotlight
= 20x20
1.0 x 1.0
0.5 x 0.5
Himage
= 300 x 300
5.0 x 5.0
2.5 x 2.5
PingPong (Not applicable to DEM)
= 300 x 300
20.0 x 20.0
10.0 x 10.0
WideRegion
= 300 x 300
30 x 30
15 x 15
HugeRegion
= 400x400
100 x 100
50 x 50
The Mosaicked Products product are generated assembling level 1B, 1C or 1D products or strips into a common grid.
Mosaicked Products are generated from data acquired in all the COSMO-SkyMed acquisition modes, assembling images acquired by homogeneous modes. Mosaicking of images acquired by heterogeneous modes is allowed too, with the exception of PingPong images
It is possible to produce mosaicked products according to the following policy:
Instrument
Mode
Product
Type
Spacing
Resolution
Geometric accuracy
Homogeneous
SAR Image
As for input
As for input
As like as the The same accuracy of the single product less accurate in inputput tile
DEM
As for input
As for input
As like as the accuracy (absolute horizontal, absolute vertical, relative horizontal, relative vertical) of the less accurate input tile
Mixed
SAR Image
The same of the product with minor resolution largest one
The same of the single product less resoluted tile (i.e. the largest value).
Most resoluted images are degraded by a mean filter in order to avoid image non-homogeneities
The same As like as the accuracy of the single product less accurate in input tile
DEM
The smallest one.
Less resoluted images are interpolated to the finest spacing
Native resolution of single tiles is preserved
As like as the accuracy (absolute horizontal, absolute vertical, relative horizontal, relative vertical) of the less accurate input tile
The following constraint must be considered for the mosaicked products request policy:
Area
Constraint
Polarization
Cannot be requested mosaicked products from images acquired with different Tx/Rx polarization (or different pairs of Tx/Rx polarization, in the case of mosaicking of PingPong products)
In the case of product obtained by mosaicking of Ping Pong tiles, layers with the same polarization are mosaicked separately in two different images.
Subswath
Can be requested mosaicked products from images acquired at different subswath (off-nadir angles)
Look Side
Can be requested mosaicked products from images acquired at different look side (Left/Right)
Orbit Direction
Can be requested mosaicked products from images acquired at different Orbit Direction (Ascending/Descending)
- Mosaicking of SAR products is allowed
for the maximum coverage defined listed in the following table:
- What are the geometric characteristics
(e.g. orbit type, beams) of COSMO-SkyMed acquisition?
- COSMO-SkyMed satellites have the
following reference orbital parameters:
- orbit type: sun synchronous
- revolution/day: 14 + 13/16
- revolution/cycle: 237
- orbit characteristic:
- inclination: 97.86°
- eccentricity: 0.001185
- argument of perigee: +90°
- reference height: 619.6 km
- LTAN: 6:00 a.m.
COSMO-SkyMed SAR supports the following imaging modes:
- SPOTLIGHT-2 (ENHANCED_SPOTLIGHT)
- STRIPMAP HIMAGE
- STRIPMAP PINGPONG
- SCANSAR WIDE REGION
- SCANSAR HUGEREGION
Details of single beams are in the following table. These beams are available for both Right-looking and left-looking mode. Number are given for off-nadir angles:
SPOTLIGHT-2BEAM
NEAR
FAR
ES-0A
18,170
19,970
ES-0B
19,520
20,860
ES-0C
20,600
21,940
ES-0D
21,580
22,930
ES-1
22,570
23,910
ES-2
23,730
25,070
ES-3
24,360
25,690
ES-4
25,490
26,830
ES-5
26,500
28,140
ES-6
27,980
29,080
ES-7
28,880
30,220
ES-8
30,180
31,520
ES-9
31,440
32,770
ES-10
32,310
33,650
ES-11
33,330
34,530
ES-12
34,470
35,680
ES-13
35,150
36,370
ES-14
35,930
37,240
ES-15
36,870
38,180
ES-16
38,000
39,110
ES-17
39,020
40,040
ES-18
39,970
41,090
ES-19
41,060
42,000
ES-20
41,650
42,590
ES-21
42,540
43,620
ES-22
43,570
44,400
ES-23
44,360
45,140
ES-24
45,050
45,940
ES-25
45,830
46,500
ES-26
46,460
47,130
ES-27
47,030
47,760
ES-28
47,700
48,380
ES-29
48,350
48,880
ES-30
48,860
49,410
ES-31
49,330
49,950
ES-32
49,920
50,390
ES-33
50,230
50,910
ES-34
50,790
51,300
ES-35
51,240
51,740
StripMap HIMAGE
BEAM
NEAR
FAR
H4-0A
16,360
20,150
H4-0B
20,050
23,500
H4-1
22,600
25,660
H4-2
23,130
26,210
H4-3
25,100
28,000
H4-4
27,710
30,470
H4-5
29,270
31,960
H4-6
30,600
33,380
H4-7
32,430
34,830
H4-8
33,600
36,000
H4-9
34,600
37,200
H4-10
35,900
38,150
H4-11
37,510
39,600
H4-12
38,560
40,670
H4-13
39,340
41,390
H4-14
40,000
42,000
H4-15
41,790
43,620
H4-16
43,100
44,800
H4-17
44,490
45,920
H4-18
45,690
46,850
H4-19
46,800
47,990
H4-20
47,690
48,700
H4-21
48,640
49,800
H4-22
49,660
50,640
H4-23
50,520
51,370
H4-24
51,150
51,980
StripMap PINGPONG
BEAM
NEAR
FAR
PP-A
17,140
20,300
PP-B
20,100
22,570
PP-1
22,070
24,760
PP-2
23,550
26,230
PP-3
24,450
27,110
PP-4
26,010
28,670
PP-5
28,440
30,650
PP-6
29,850
32,050
PP-7
31,000
33,180
PP-8
32,310
34,310
PP-9
33,970
35,950
PP-10
35,440
37,330
PP-11
36,880
38,670
PP-12
37,930
39,710
PP-13
39,630
41,740
PP-14
41,700
43,280
PP-15
42,970
44,530
PP-16
44,500
45,930
PP-17
45,750
47,100
PP-18
46,810
47,980
PP-19
47,900
49,000
PP-20
48,800
49,750
PP-21
49,700
50,620
PP-22
50,490
51,360
PP-23
50,920
51,750
ScanSAR WIDEREGION
SWATH
NEAR
FAR
WR-00
16,720
28,740
WR-01
21,850
33,010
WR-02
30,120
38,670
WR-03
36,800
43,500
WR-04
40,400
45,920
WR-05
45,710
50,100
WR-06
48,020
51,370
WR-07
49,150
52,060
NB: currenmtly the beam WR-00 is not available
ScanSAR HUGEREGION
SWATH
NEAR
FAR
HG-00
16,720
33,970
HG-01
21,850
37,070
HG-02
30,120
41,880
HG-03
36,800
45,920
HG-04
43,400
50,100
HG-05
46,930
52,060
NB: currenmtly the beam HG-00 is not available
- COSMO-SkyMed satellites have the
following reference orbital parameters:
- Only for users of www.cosmo-skymed.it:
Which are the requests status? What do they mean?
- Each Service Request (SR) can be in one
of the following status
- NEW - a SR status is NEW when all the following steps have been performed:
- the UGS customer inserts username and password to perform authentication on CAM
- selects the service
- composes a SR, choosing its parameters
- ESTIMATED - a SR status is ESTIMATED when all the following steps have been performed:
- UGS customer submitted the service request to CAM
- syntactic and semantic validation of the received SR has been performed
- the SR has been inserted into the database
- an order estimation in terms of cost etc. has been performed
- CANCELLED - a SR status is CANCELLED when the UGS customer selects Cancel entry
- SUBMITTED - a SR status is SUBMITTED when all the following steps have been performed:
- UGS customer accepts the estimation of the order and confirms it.
- UGS customer performs commercial transactions for electronic payment
- RUNNING - a SR status is RUNNING when all the following steps have been performed:
- the new Service Request record has been retrieved from database
- the Service Schema associated to the service request has been instantiated and is then running, after the collection of all the connected parameters
- DELETED - a SR status is DELETED when all programming and processing tasks have removed by the UGS operator
- AVAILABLE - a SR status is AVAILABLE when the products are ready for delivery
- COMPLETED - a SR status is COMPLETED when delivery has been successfully completed
- FAILED - a SR status is FAILED if there is at least one not completed PR and the expiration time of the SR has been reached.
- EXPIRED - a SR status is EXPIRED if the expiration time of the SR has been reached and no errors on PRs have been detected.
- Each Service Request (SR) can be in one
of the following status
- How
they work the COSMO-SkyMed acquisitions for the DEM products generation?
-
COSMO-SkyMed provide two constellation configurations according to different angular separations between a couple of satellites: Tandem and Tandem-Like.
The Tandem-Like Configuration is also known as "one-day" interferometry, it achieves the interferometric acquisitions in 24h time delay by placing two satellites with a relative phase of 67,5°.
The Tandem Configuration is achieved when two satellites fly in close proximity for interferometric acquisitions in near real time. These satellites fly in different orbital planes having Ascending Node separation as large as 0,08° and True Anomaly phasing of 1,22°, corresponding to an along track separation of 150 km.
In a Tandem-Like Configuration no specific strategy for orbit keeping is applied and standard manoeuvres are performed in order to maintain the orbit within 1 km.
Currently satellites SAR 2 and SAR 3 are in configuration Tandem-like. It is possible to perform Interferometric Campaigns in both the Tandem and Tandem-like configuration. During an Interferometric Campaign, a reference baseline over a specific area of interest is maintained with a specific orbit keeping strategy of the involved satellites, with more frequent manoeuvres.
Only the owner of the COSMO-SkyMed System, ASI and AD can decide to start an Interferometric Campaign. Currently thera not on going Interferometric Campaign and there are not scheduled Interferometric Campaigns.
The DEM products of COSMO-SkyMed system can be generated starting from a couple of interferometric images (it means the same acquisition geometry) in the same acquisition mode (Spotlight-2 o StripMap HIMAGE).
In Tandem inteferometric configuration (configuration, based on different orbit planes, with 20" of separation, corresponding to an along-track separation of 151 Km, and a plane separation of 0.08 deg) the DEM Products have the following specifications:
The DEM Products originated from data acquired in Enhanced Spotlight mode:
- Absolute vertical accuracy = 50m
- Relative vertical accuracy = 6m
- Absolute horizontal accuracy = 50m
- Relative horizontal accuracy = 4m
- Posting = 3mx3m
To be satisfied at least under the following conditions:
- Orthogonal baseline in the range [400m, 600m]
- Incidence angle in the range [50deg, 60deg]
- Maximum surface slope of 30° and minimum coherence of 0,6 (for 95% of points)
- Availability of a reference DEM (for calibration) fulfilling at least DTED1 specifications (posting 90 x 90 m2, abs. vert. acc. 30 m, rel. vert. acc. 20 m, abs. horiz. acc. 50 m).
The DEM Products originated from data acquired in Himage mode:
- Absolute vertical accuracy = 55m
- Relative vertical accuracy = 10m
- Absolute horizontal accuracy = 50m
- Relative horizontal accuracy = 7m
- Posting = 10mx10m
To be satisfied at least under the following conditions:
- Orthogonal baseline in the range [200m, 300m]
- Incidence angle in the range [50deg, 60deg]
- Maximum surface slope of 25° and minimum coherence of 0,6 (for 95% of points)
- Availability of a reference DEM (for calibration) fulfilling at least DTED1 specifications (posting 90 x 90 m2, abs. vert. acc. 30 m, rel. vert. acc. 20 m, abs. horiz. acc. 50 m).
In Tandem-Like configuration the DEM products generation is not assured. The quality of the product will depends on several parameters, such as the perpendicular baseline between acquired data and coherence between the images.
Currently, the Tandem-like configuration, in order to generate DEM products, suggests to order images with 1 day of time distance (SAR2-SAR3) with incidence angles which lies in the range 50°-60°.
-