When I open a SENTINEL-1 or RADARSAT-2 image I don’t get any metadata
Some user may open the .tif image files which would use the GeoTIFF reader and only open the tiff image rather than the whole product.
A SENTINEL-1 product should be opened through it’s manifest.safe file to ensure that the SENTINEL-1 product reader will recognize all files and import the whole product.
A RADARSAT-2 product should be opened through it’s product.xml file to ensure that the RADARSAT-2 product reader will recognize all files and import the whole product.
Can I open products directly from .zip files
Products can be opened directly from a zip without the need to first unzip the files. The file naming needs to be as officially distributed so that the software may know what type of reader is needed without actually reading the data. For example: S1A_IW_SLC__1SSV_20141103T195043_20141103T195057_003122_00395A_F396.zip
RS2_OK5526_PK71396_DK69156_FQ20_20090617_025220_HH_VV_HV_VH_SLC.zip
ASA_IMP_1PNPDE20110107_025428_000000163098_00161_46296_0420.N1.zip
Why can I not orthorectify my image over the Arctic?
It will depend on the DEM and output map projection. The default SRTM DEM is only available from +60 to -60 deg latitude. At the polar regions you will need to use either the low resolution GETASSE30, ASTER GDEM up to 83 deg or your own external DEM. Also, for the polar regions, using a polar map projection will give you a better result.