Clarification on preprocessing steps for Sentinel-1 RTC dataset

[Sebastian Valentin Löblein (bastiloeblein)]

Hello Planetary Computer team,

I am currently working with data cubes that combine Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data, and I am using the Sentinel-1 RTC dataset provided through the Microsoft Planetary Computer STAC catalog.

The dataset is described as Radiometric Terrain Corrected (RTC), and the spatial alignment with Sentinel-2 is excellent. However, for my analysis it is important to clearly understand which preprocessing steps have already been applied to the Sentinel-1 data and which have not.

I have reviewed the dataset page and STAC metadata, but I could not find explicit confirmation for some SAR-specific preprocessing steps. I would therefore appreciate an official clarification on the following points:

1. Thermal noise removal

   • Has thermal noise removal been applied to the Sentinel-1 GRD data before producing the RTC assets?

2. Border noise removal

   • Are GRD border noise artifacts already removed in the RTC product?

3. Speckle filtering

   • Is any form of speckle filtering applied as part of the RTC processing pipeline?
   • If yes, which filter (and parameters, if applicable)?
   • If not, can the data be considered “unfiltered” apart from radiometric terrain correction?

More generally, if there is documentation that explicitly lists the full preprocessing pipeline used to generate the Sentinel-1 RTC dataset in the Planetary Computer, a pointer to that would be very helpful.

Thank you for providing this dataset and for any clarification you can share.

Best regards,
Sebastian

[maciej-kandula]

Could you help identify the exact processing provenance for the following public Sentinel-1 RTC assets?

The source GRD annotations report thermalNoiseCorrectionPerformed=false. I am treating that as source-GRD metadata only: it does not establish whether downstream RTC processing applied noise correction.

1. For these exact six assets/ETags, which processor build and immutable job/recipe produced the RTC values?
2. Were range and azimuth thermal-noise corrections applied, and with which LUTs and settings?
3. Were GRD border-noise masking or any speckle filters applied? Please specify algorithms, parameters and whether masks are available.
4. Does the CEOS-endorsed Catalyst RTC processing recipe cover these specific Planetary Computer2025 assets, including Sentinel-1C, and where is its processing metadata recorded?

Exact asset versions:

• https://sentinel1euwestrtc.blob.core.windows.net/sentinel1-grd-rtc/GRD/2025/8/31/IW/DV/S1C_IW_GRDH_1SDV_20250831T053213_20250831T053238_003912_007CAC_98DE/measurement/iw-vv.rtc.tiff
  ETag: "0x8DDE86848B220D2"; Last-Modified: Sun, 31 Aug 2025 08:27:55 GMT

• https://sentinel1euwestrtc.blob.core.windows.net/sentinel1-grd-rtc/GRD/2025/8/31/IW/DV/S1C_IW_GRDH_1SDV_20250831T053213_20250831T053238_003912_007CAC_98DE/measurement/iw-vh.rtc.tiff
  ETag: "0x8DDE8686172379E"; Last-Modified: Sun, 31 Aug 2025 08:28:36 GMT

• https://sentinel1euwestrtc.blob.core.windows.net/sentinel1-grd-rtc/GRD/2025/2/15/IW/DV/S1A_IW_GRDH_1SDV_20250215T155014_20250215T155039_057909_072507_73C7/measurement/iw-vv.rtc.tiff
  ETag: "0x8DD4DFF4CA8CB1B"; Last-Modified: Sat, 15 Feb 2025 20:28:25 GMT

• https://sentinel1euwestrtc.blob.core.windows.net/sentinel1-grd-rtc/GRD/2025/2/15/IW/DV/S1A_IW_GRDH_1SDV_20250215T155014_20250215T155039_057909_072507_73C7/measurement/iw-vh.rtc.tiff
  ETag: "0x8DD4DFF659D64D1"; Last-Modified: Sat, 15 Feb 2025 20:29:07 GMT

• https://sentinel1euwestrtc.blob.core.windows.net/sentinel1-grd-rtc/GRD/2025/8/14/IW/DV/S1A_IW_GRDH_1SDV_20250814T155011_20250814T155036_060534_078725_1FD3/measurement/iw-vv.rtc.tiff
  ETag: "0x8DDDB76C7046A21"; Last-Modified: Thu, 14 Aug 2025 21:08:54 GMT

• https://sentinel1euwestrtc.blob.core.windows.net/sentinel1-grd-rtc/GRD/2025/8/14/IW/DV/S1A_IW_GRDH_1SDV_20250814T155011_20250814T155036_060534_078725_1FD3/measurement/iw-vh.rtc.tiff
  ETag: "0x8DDDB76E1151636"; Last-Modified: Thu, 14 Aug 2025 21:09:38 GMT

A processing manifest, immutable recipe/build reference, or asset-specific confirmation would be useful. Thank you.