A Sneak Peek on Upcoming SNAP 9

Dear SNAP Users,

the next release of SNAP is at the horizon, and we wanted to share a sneak peek on the new features you can expect for SNAP 9. Please look at the section below to learn about some of the new features and enhancements.

SNAP

The new ZNAP data format is considered as feature complete and will be part of the SNAP release. For now, the BEAM-DIMAP format will be the default output format. We would like to gather your feedback the need format before we make the new standard format. The new format has some benefits.  Smaller footprint on disk, faster writing, and it uses a single file or directory for storing the data. Python developers will welcome, that Zarr is used as basis for the ZNAP format. This will make it easy to read the data with Xarray for example.

The Colour Manipulation Tool has some improvements. This includes an Auto-applied color schemes based on a band-name lookup, a dedicated preferences page and some new RGB profiles and Colour Palettes. This work has been performed by the colleagues at the NASA OBPG, who develop SeaDAS.

The Copernicus DEM will replace the SRTM as the default free and open Digital Elevation Model in SNAP.

Sentinel-1 Toolbox

The S1TBX continues to support most SAR missions with updates to the Sentinel-1 format and support for Cosmo-Skymed SG, Gaofen-3 and Spacety. The ARD functionality will be enhanced with the addition of a Noise Power Image and Gamma-to-Sigma ratio image. InSAR functionality will include ionospheric estimation and correction using a splitbandwidth approach. The polarimetric processing gets amended by Kennaugh Matrix, and Huynen, Krogager, Cameron, Yang decompositions as well as Radar Vegetation Indices.

Sentinel-2 Toolbox

The included GDAL distribution will be updated to version 3.2.1. Also, a plugin for COG writer was added. The user interface of several operators has been enhanced to make the user experience better when using them in the Graph Builder. Windowed Reading of Products is now available in Graph Builder, so that, the reader will directly read the region of interest as a full-fledged product. New plugins adapter will be available for MAJA and Sen2Cor.

Sentinel-3 Toolbox

The Sentinel-3 Toolbox will bring new operators which are dedicated for the pre-processing of Sentinel-3 data. For example, the OLCI Anomaly Detection operator, an operator harmonising OLCI A and B data and a Dark Object Subtraction (DOS) operator for general optical data. Flags recommended by the Quality Working Group (QWG) for OLCI L2 Land and Water data have been incorporated in the products and are available masks. Sentinel-3 data uses the pixel-based geo-coding by default and not the tie-points anymore.

Now you’re wondering when you can expect the release, aren’t you?
There is no exact release date defined yet, but you can expect the release in springtime.

The SNAP Team