Importing Sentinel-1 Image Collection to Google Earth Engine API

Question

I'm currently having an issue with trying to import the Sentinel-1 image collection into the Earth Engine API. My script is as follows:

var imgSentinel1 = ee.ImageCollection('COPERNICUS/S1');
Map.centerObject(imgSentinel1, 3);
Map.addLayer(imgSentinel1);

The error outputted is as follows:

Layer 1: Tile error: Expected a homogeneous image collection, but an image with incompatible bands was encountered:
  First image type: 2 bands ([HH, HV]).
Current image type: 2 bands ([VH, VV]).
      Image ID: S1A_EW_GRDH_1SDV_20141017T180916_20141017T181011_002873_0033FA_7339
Some bands might require explicit casts.

Since Sentinel-1 holds multiple bands, I try to filter the bands:

Map.addLayer(imgSentinel1, {'bands':['HH, HV']});

The following is outputted:

Layer 1: Tile error: Expected a homogeneous image collection, but an image with incompatible bands was encountered:
  First image type: 2 bands ([HH, HV]).
Current image type: 2 bands ([VH, VV]).
      Image ID: S1A_EW_GRDH_1SDV_20141013T234000_20141013T234103_002818_0032C9_90E3
Some bands might require explicit casts.

I've tried to change the bands (ex. 'HH', 'HV', 'VV', 'VH, VV'), but it would output:

Layer 1: Tile error: Expected a homogeneous image collection, but an image with incompatible bands was encountered:
  First image type: 2 bands ([HH, HV]).
Current image type: 2 bands ([VH, VV]).
      Image ID: S1A_EW_GRDH_1SDV_20141013T234000_20141013T234103_002818_0032C9_90E3
Some bands might require explicit casts.

^ when 'HH', 'HV' or 'HH, HV' was inputted, and:

Layer 1: Layer error: Image.visualize: No band named 'VV'. Available band names: [HH, HV].

^ when 'VV', 'VH', 'VH, VV' or 'VV, VH' was inputted for the bands. Other basic variables used for other satellite images like 'B1' also failed.

I wish to display any (and potentially all) bands that may be used for statistical analysis similar to displaying Landsat-8.

Answer 1

Try this code, it works for me :)

var p = function(image) { return image.log10().multiply(10)};

var pol = ['VV'];

var imgVV = ee.ImageCollection('COPERNICUS/S1').
 filter(ee.Filter.eq('transmitterReceiverPolarisation', pol)).
 filterMetadata('instrumentMode', 'equals', 'IW');

Map.addLayer(imgVV),
Map.setCenter(-119.84, 37.83, 8);

Answer 2

The original issue is that the 'transmitterReceiverPolarisation' metadata field is a list.

The fix shown above only retrieves instances when there is a single polarization included. This would have a metadata field of ['HH'] (for example).

Sentinel-1 may have one or two polarizations. The GEE Guide related to Sentinel-1 Algorithms shows that the metadata can be ['VV'], ['HH'], ['VV', 'VH'], or ['HH', 'HV'].

This Guide shows that the filter should be general

  .filter(ee.Filter.listContains('transmitterReceiverPolarisation', 'VV'))