RCM -- RADARSAT Constellation Mission Product

Added in version 3.11.

Driver short name

RCM

Driver built-in by default

This driver is built-in by default

This driver will read RADARSAT Constellation Mission polarimetric products.

The RADARSAT Constellation Mission XML products are distributed with a primary XML file called product.xml, and a set of supporting XML data files with the actual imagery stored in TIFF files. The RCM driver will be used if the product.xml or the containing directory is selected, and it can treat all the imagery as one consistent dataset.

The RCM driver also reads geolocation tiepoints from the product.xml file and represents them as GCPs on the dataset.

Driver capabilities

Supports Georeferencing

This driver supports georeferencing

Supports VirtualIO

This driver supports virtual I/O operations (/vsimem/, etc.)

Data Calibration

If you wish to have GDAL apply a particular calibration LUT to the data when you open it, you have to open the appropriate subdatasets. The following subdatasets exist within the SUBDATASET domain for RCM products:

  • uncalibrated: open with RCM_CALIB:UNCALIB: prepended to filename

  • beta0: open with RCM_CALIB:BETA0: prepended to filename

  • sigma0: open with RCM_CALIB:SIGMA0: prepended to filename

  • Gamma: open with RCM_CALIB:GAMMA: prepended to filename

Note that geocoded (GCC/GCD) products do not have this functionality available. Also be aware that the LUTs must be in the product directory where specified in the product.xml, otherwise loading the product with the calibration LUT applied will fail.

One caveat worth noting is that the RCM driver will supply the calibrated data as GDT_Float32 or GDT_CFloat32 depending on the type of calibration selected. The uncalibrated data is provided as GDT_Int16/GDT_Byte/GDT_CInt16, also depending on the type of product selected.

See Also

  • RADARSAT Constellation Mission Product Specification RCM-SP-52-9092