We believe satellite intelligence shouldn't require a seven-figure contract or a PhD in remote sensing. SAR API turns free, open Sentinel-1 radar data into ready-to-use JSON — floods, dark vessels, oil spills, deforestation, and more — delivered in milliseconds.
The European Space Agency's Sentinel-1 constellation images the entire Earth's surface every six days, in all weather, day and night. It sees through clouds. It sees through darkness. Every scan is published as open data — free to download, free to use.
The problem is the complexity. Processing raw SAR backscatter into meaningful detections requires terrain correction, speckle filtering, land masking, and algorithm expertise. Most organisations simply don't have it. SAR API removes that barrier entirely — you get the intelligence, not the satellite science.
Every six days, our pipeline runs automatically:
We're built on top of the Copernicus programme — a publicly funded, open-access Earth observation system operated by ESA and the European Commission. The underlying satellite data is free. What we sell is the processing, the infrastructure, and the developer experience.
Flood mapping — SAR backscatter drops sharply over flooded land. We apply Otsu thresholding against permanent water masks to isolate true flood extent, measured in km².
Dark vessel detection — Vessels appear as bright point targets in SAR. We use CFAR (Constant False Alarm Rate) detection to find ships independently of AIS transponders — including those that have gone dark to avoid tracking.
Oil spill detection — Biogenic films and oil slicks suppress surface roughness, creating dark patches in VV polarisation. We distinguish these from wind shadows using texture and context.
Change detection — Deforestation, construction, and burn scars are detected by comparing backscatter ratios between consecutive passes over the same area.
Free API key, no credit card required. 100 calls/day, 30-day history, global coverage.