Launched by NASA in 1978, the Seasat satellite’s primary mission was to observe oceans using NASA’s first synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor. Seasat was not equipped with an onboard recorder, so in order to collect data during the mission, three U.S. and two international ground stations downlinked data from the satellite in real time: Fairbanks, Alaska; Goldstone, California; Merritt Island, Florida; Shoe Cove, Newfoundland; and Oakhanger, United Kingdom. Originally, Seasat SAR data were optically processed into survey data products available on 70 mm film. Approximately 10 percent of the total Seasat SAR dataset was digitally processed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) from 1978 to 1982.

In 2013, the Alaska Satellite Facility DAAC processed and created a digital archive of focused SAR products from data collected by Seasat. Starting with raw signal data on tapes, the Seasat data were successively (1) captured to disk, (2) validated and byte-aligned, (3) decoded, (4) cleaned of bit errors and discontinuities, (5) focused into single look complex imagery, (6) processed into georeferenced ground range products. The products created are available in this collection in both HDF-5 and GeoTiff format.