Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B CSAR status

2009 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2009

The ESA Sentinels constitute the first series of operational satellites responding to the Earth Observation needs of the EU-ESA Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme. The GMES space component relies on existing and planned space assets as well as on new complementary developments by ESA. This paper describes the Sentinel-1 mission, an imaging synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellation at C-band. It provides an overview of the mission requirements, its applications and the technical concept for the system.

Remote Sensing of Environment, 2012

In the frame of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) Space Component programme, the European Space Agency (ESA) undertook the development of a European Radar Observatory (Sentinel-1), a polar orbiting two-satellite constellation for the continuation and improvement of SAR operational services and applications. Satellite and payload are being built to provide routine, day-and-night, all-weather medium (typically 10 m) resolution observation capability. Ground infrastructure is provided for planning, mission control, data processing, dissemination and archiving. Free and open data access is provided. Data quality of the Sentinel-1 data products is shown along with uncertainty estimation of retrieved information products confirming specified performance and indicating application growth potential. The unique data availability performance of the Sentinel-1 routine operations makes the mission particularly suitable for emergency response support, marine surveillance, ice monitoring and interferometric applications such as detection of subsidence and landslides.

The Sentinel-4 mission, as part of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), now called “Copernicus”, has the primary objective of observing the diurnal cycle of the tropospheric composition in support of the air quality applications of Copernicus Atmosphere Services. The paper addresses the Sentinel-4 mission, the respective space and ground segment implementation and its associated elements. The overall mission operations concept and principles are briefly outlined. The S4/UVN instrument will provide data products for continuous monitoring of the atmospheric composition above Europe and northern Africa with additional complementary value with respect to low Earth orbit predecessor missions, like GOME, SCIAMACHY, OMI, GOME-2 and future missions like Sentinel-5. The expected launch date of the first MTG-S satellite hosting the first Sentinel- 4/UVN instrument is 2019; the expected mission duration is 15 years.

In the frame of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme (GMES) jointly implemented by ESA and EC, ESA is developing the Sentinel-2 system, providing globally with systematic acquisition high resolution (10-20 m) optical observations with a high revisit tailored towards the needs of operational land services. This system will ensure data continuity of SPOT and Landsat multi-spectral sensor series and further enhancement to account of future service evolution.

IGARSS 2008 - 2008 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2008

The ESA Sentinels constitute the first series of operational satellites responding to the Earth Observation needs of the EU-ESA Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme. The GMES space component relies on existing and planned space assets as well as on new complementary developments by ESA. This paper describes the Sentinel-1 mission, an imaging synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellation at C-band. It provides an overview of the mission requirements, its applications and the preliminary technical concept for the system.

2008 IEEE Radar Conference, 2008

The ESA Sentinels constitute the first series of operational satellites responding to the Earth Observation needs of the EU-ESA Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme. The GMES space component relies on existing and planned space assets as well as on new complementary developments by ESA. This paper describes the Sentinel-1 mission, an imaging synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellation at C-band. It provides an overview of the mission requirements, its applications and the preliminary technical concept for the system.

2014 IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2014

Contrary to the previous ESA SAR missions ERS and Envisat, where acquisition planning was mainly based on user requests and user priority (on top of a background mission), the Sentinel missions will be operated based on a predefined planning. The definition of the initial Sentinel-1 predefined observation scenarios needs to be in line with the overall Sentinels operations strategy, with the aim of satisfying the observation requirements from the COPERNICUS services and for use by ESA and EU Member States, as stipulated in the ESA GMES Space Component Programme Declaration and addressed in .

2008

In Europe the development of space technology is being coordinated by the European Space Agency under tight control of its Member States and their normal democratic procedures. For mature Earth observation applications other than meteorology a new European programme framework for operational satellites is emerging, based on the explicit requirements of services provided to the end-user. The Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme is a joint initiative of the European Union (EU) and the European Space Agency (ESA). As part of the GMES space component, ESA is undertaking the development of a European Radar Observatory (Sentinel-1), a European polar orbiting satellite system for the continuation of SAR operational applications. Sentinel1 is an imaging radar mission at C-band aimed at providing continuity of data for user services. Special emphasis is placed on services identified in ESA’s GMES service elements (GSE) program. Additional inputs come from ongoing G...

Proc. 4th Int. Workshop …, 2009

The ESA Sentinels constitute the first series of operational satellites responding to the Earth Observation needs of the EU-ESA Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme. The GMES space component relies on existing and planned ...

13th International Conference on Space Operations 2014, 2014

The Sentinel-1 mission is an initiative of Europe's Global Monitoring for Environment and Security, GMES (now named COPERNICUS) program. Its main objective is to provide operational data with the purpose of monitoring several aspects of the sea and land surface, ensuring the continuity with the earlier ERS and Envisat missions. The design of the Sentinel-1 mission, with its focus on reliability, operational stability, global coverage, consistent operations and quick data delivery, is expected to enable the development of new applications and to meet the evolving needs of GMES. The Sentinel-1 mission is composed by two satellites: S1A and S1B. S1A is expected to be launched in early 2014. S1B will be launched a few years later. In the scope of the Sentinel-1 program, the Mission Planning subsystem is part of the Payload Data Ground Segment (PDGS) and has been deployed at ESA's establishment in Frascati (Italy). GMV was awarded in 2010 with the contract for the development of the Mission Planning subsystem with Airbus Defence & Space, ESA's prime contractor for the Sentinel-1 PDGS. The current, accepted version of the Mission Planning subsystem is to be used during the launch campaign of the Sentinel-1 A satellite. The Mission Planning subsystem is in charge of generating the plan of activities for the payload and also for the data downlink. It must provide effective solutions to data provision in terms of revisit frequency, coverage, timeliness and reliability. Due to the nature of the design of the Sentinel-1 satellites, where the autonomy of the satellites is a main driver, the mission plans must be adapted to this philosophy. This fact also has an impact on the scheduling of the on-ground activities. Some of the key activities of the Mission Planning subsystem are:  Perform the on-board memory management of the sensing data in order to optimize its usage. The Sentinel-1 Mass Memory is a complex device that offers multiple configuration options. The correct and optimal usage of such device is a key point of the planning problem.  To grant the reception and processing of the sensing data in order to meet its strict delivery requirements to the users.  To optimize the usage of the Ground Stations network in order to provide the image data to the users at the required time.  To insert in the plan as many user requests for sensing data as possible.  To plan imagery in tandem for both satellites that constitute the Sentinel-1 constellation  To update the plan in case that sensing requests are received at the last moment