PROProduction

Evaluate SAR scene readiness for downstream analysis, including optional terrain and pairwise coherence-proxy checks.

workflow pro

Workflow Narrative

SAR Readiness QA

Problem It Solves

Are SAR scenes normalized enough for robust multi-scene comparison and downstream analytics?

Who It Is For

SAR specialists and all-weather monitoring teams.

Primary User

Disaster/hazard monitoring units, remote sensing service firms, and infrastructure monitoring groups.

What It Does

Produces analysis-ready SAR derivatives from SAR + DEM.
Applies calibration, speckle filtering, and RTC-support factor generation.
Accepts either direct SAR rasters or supported SAR bundles and records bundle metadata provenance.
Optionally emits a pair-based coherence proxy and can auto-coregister the pair first when explicit opt-in alignment is requested.

How It Works

Converts input SAR intensity to calibrated backscatter-compatible values.
Applies configurable speckle-window filtering for noise suppression.
Computes terrain correction factors from DEM geometry, resolves bundle metadata when present, and optionally evaluates a pair coherence proxy.
Indicative formula: gamma0 ~= sigma0 / cos(local_incidence), then local-window filtering and optional pair coherence estimation.

Why It Wins

Couples SAR preprocessing with terrain support, bundle-native provenance, and explicit geometry guardrails, while still allowing an audited auto-coregistration handoff when pair alignment is not pre-established.
Boundary note:
`sar_analysis_readiness` is not the dedicated interferogram+coherence production workflow.
Dedicated companion tool (single combined workflow): `sar_interferogram_coherence`.
Design spec and scope details: `docs/sar_interferogram_coherence_spec.md`.

Typical Buying Trigger

An organization needs dependable all-weather monitoring where optical imagery is frequently unavailable.

Typical Presets

default with single scene for preprocessing.
pair mode with either direct raster pairs or bundle-resolved pair inputs for coherence-proxy output.

Inputs

Parameter	Optional	Description
input_sar or input_sar_bundle, input_dem	no	Primary SAR source plus terrain model used for radiometric terrain correction and readiness metrics.
input_measurement_key	yes	Optional bundle measurement selector when the input SAR bundle contains multiple assets.
optional pair_sar or pair_sar_bundle and look-angle controls	yes	Optional secondary SAR source and geometry controls used for pair-based coherence-proxy diagnostics.
pair_measurement_key	yes	Optional bundle measurement selector when the pair SAR bundle contains multiple assets.
auto_coregister_pair, coreg_max_offset_px, coreg_decimation, coreg_min_overlap_fraction	yes	Optional opt-in handoff to translation-mode pair alignment before coherence-proxy estimation when CRS/grid do not already match.
speckle_window, z_factor	no	Noise-filter window and vertical scaling controls used in SAR preprocessing.

Outputs

Parameter	Type	Description
sar_backscatter_calibrated	GeoTIFF	Calibrated SAR backscatter raster suitable for quantitative comparison.
speckle_filtered	GeoTIFF	Speckle-reduced SAR raster for improved interpretability and downstream analysis.
rtc_factor	GeoTIFF	Radiometric terrain correction factor raster used to normalize SAR signal.
coherence_proxy	optional GeoTIFF	Optional pair-based amplitude-domain coherence proxy raster when a compatible SAR pair is provided.
summary	JSON	Machine-readable summary report containing run metadata, QA diagnostics, and key metrics.
html_report	HTML	Human-readable customer-facing report generated from the summary contract for stakeholder review and QA traceability.

Python Example

import whitebox_workflows as wbw

wbe = wbw.WbEnvironment(include_pro=True, tier="pro")

result = wbe.sar_analysis_readiness(
    input_sar_bundle="data/S1_reference.SAFE",
    input_measurement_key="vv",
    input_dem="data/dem.tif",
    pair_sar_bundle="data/S1_pair.SAFE",
    pair_measurement_key="vv",
    auto_coregister_pair=True,
    coreg_max_offset_px=24,
    speckle_window=5,
    output_prefix="output/sar_ready",
)

print(result)

License Notice

Use of this function requires a license for Whitebox Workflows Professional (WbW-Pro). Please visit www.whiteboxgeo.com to purchase a license.

Project Links

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