Installation

s1bursts needs a Python package, a free CDSE account, and ESA SNAP. Searching the catalog works with the package alone. Downloading needs the account, and processing needs SNAP.

Install the package

s1bursts requires Python 3.12 or newer and installs from PyPI:

pip install s1bursts

uv add s1bursts

pixi add --pypi s1bursts

s1bursts is not packaged for conda. Install it from PyPI into your conda environment:

conda activate my-env
pip install s1bursts

Install SNAP

Processing runs gpt, the command-line tool of SNAP version 13 or 14. Install it with ESA’s installer, or as a conda package:

Download SNAP from ESA and include the Microwave Toolbox, which holds the Sentinel-1 tools. The installer does not always put gpt on your PATH. If it does not, set SNAP_BIN to the installation’s bin directory (see Environment variables).

The esa-snap-s1tbx-gpt package installs gpt with the radar toolboxes and puts it on your PATH whenever the environment is active. It is a community package, not published by ESA, available for Linux, macOS and Windows.

pixi workspace channel add sarforge
pixi add "esa-snap-s1tbx-gpt 14.*"

conda install -c sarforge -c conda-forge "esa-snap-s1tbx-gpt=14"

Use one SNAP version for one study. The versions give slightly different results, so a time series that mixes them contains a small artificial step (see SNAP processing).

Check that SNAP is found

s1bursts uses the gpt in SNAP_BIN if that is set, and otherwise the one on your PATH. Check which one it finds by running this in the environment where you installed s1bursts:

from s1bursts import SNAPConfig

config = SNAPConfig()
print("gpt:", config.resolved_gpt_path)
print("SNAP version:", config.resolved_snap_version)

gpt: /opt/esa-snap/bin/gpt
SNAP version: (13, 0, 0)

If s1bursts cannot find gpt, SNAPConfig() raises an error that says what to set.

Set up credentials

Downloads need a free CDSE account. s1bursts reads the username and password from the environment variables CDSE_USERNAME and CDSE_PASSWORD. Environment variables shows how to set them and lists the optional settings, including keys for a second download route.