The SCA instrument is a C-band wind scatterometer, which forms part of the EUMETSAT Polar System Second Generation (EPS-SG) mission. Fully space qualified in December 2022, in January 2023 it has been delivered for integration on one of the two MetOp-SG satellites. The paper presents an overview on the SCA Instrument space qualification results, the thereof predicted in-orbit mission performance and ongoing satellite test results.

The ROSE-L SAR Instrument is the key payload of the corresponding ESA Copernicus Expansion Mission, which will complement the already operational Copernicus C-band SAR mission Sentinel-1 by adding an L-band high resolution wide swath synthetic aperture radar imaging capability. The paper will present an overview on the ROSE-L SAR Instrument development status close to its Critical Design Review (CDR) and on its predicted SAR Mission Performance.

The ROSE-L SAR Instrument is the radar payload of the ESA Copernicus Expansion Programme ROSE-L mission, which will complement the already operational Copernicus C-band Sentinel-1 SAR mission by adding an L-band high resolution and wide swath synthetic aperture radar imaging capability. The paper presents an overview on the ROSE-L SAR Instrument design, its Digital Beamforming implementation as well its SAR Mode design and the corresponding SAR performance prediction.

The ROSE-L SAR Instrument is the radar payload of the ESA ROSE-L (Radar Observing System for Europe in L-band) earth observation mission in the framework of ESA's Copernicus Extension program. It will complement the already operational Copernicus C-band SAR mission Sentinel-1 by adding an L-band high resolution and wide swath synthetic aperture radar imaging capability. The paper presents an overview on the ROSE-L SAR Instrument detailed design and its technology readiness status at the time of its Preliminary Design Review (PDR).

This paper gives an overview on current activities at Astrium GmbH in Friedrichshafen in the field of technology development for future space-borne X-SAR systems based on Digital Beam Forming. The focus is on the verification of scan-on-receive beamforming in the frame of the DLR funded “High-Resolution-Wide-Swath (HRWS) demonstrator” project.

The Copernicus Sentinel-1 Earth Radar Observatory, a mission funded by the European Union and developed by ESA, is a constellation of two C-band radar satellites. The satellites have been conceived to be a continuous and reliable source of C-band SAR imagery for operational applications such as mapping of global landmasses, coastal zones and monitoring of shipping routes. The Sentinel-1 satellites are built by an industrial consortium led by Thales Alenia Space Italia as Prime Contractor and with AIRBUS Defence and Space as SAR Instrument Contractor. The first of the two satellites has finalized its environmental test campaign and is now ready for launch on 3 April 2014. The paper describes the general satellite architecture, its key performance as well as its environmental qualification.

ESA is developing the Sentinel-1 European Radar Observatory, a constellation of two polar orbiting satellites that provide C-band SAR products for operational applications. The Sentinel-1 mission has been designed to comply with stringent radiometric stability and accuracy requirements. To ensure these requirements are achieved, the mission relies on an efficient and robust strategy for in-flight calibration. This consists of (a) pulse-coded Internal Calibration pulses that achieve leakage cancellation and robust estimation and separation of different types of leakage signals and (b) an Antenna Model that estimates very accurately the antenna radiation patterns based on the instrument configuration and pre-launch measurements. Usage of calibration data and the Antenna Model supports maintaining the long-term absolute radiometric accuracy and enables a graceful degradation of performance in the event of unrecoverable failures of individual transmit/receive modules. During the commissioning phase, calibration also relies on precise external calibration transponders and measurements with notch patterns over the rainforest and transponders for accurate pointing determination.

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. In contrast to SAR systems already existing in C-band like ASAR/ENVISAT or RADARSAT-2, high demands on the radiometric accuracy are made for Sentinel-1. This paper provides an overview of the main features of GMES Sentinel-1 System, a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar Observatory for Earth Observation. The main system requirements are presented as drivers for the design of system, satellite and operations. The major design challenges as well as the most critical development aspects are outlined, mainly focusing on the Space Segment components.

The paper describes the C-SAR instrument for the GMES Sentinel-1 mission. After a brief introduction a description of the overall C-SAR instrument as well as of the design and development status of its major subsystems (i.e. the SES Electronic Subsystem (SES) and the SAR Antenna Subsystem (SAS)) is given. The main focus on this paper is on the SAS, since there is a dedicated paper on the SES within the same session.

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.

The EU-ESA Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program calls for a number of different Satellites called Sentinels to be launched within the next 6 years. The first among these are the two Sentinel-1 polar orbiting sun-synchronous satellites which each carries onboard a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (C-SAR).

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.

The Sentinel-1 C-band SAR instrument implements an internal calibration system with a minimum of dedicated calibration elements. The transmit power times receiver gain product, PG, used for correction of the image data, is obtained from five types of calibrations measurements. Leakage signals from TX to RX are the main error sources on the calibration signals. Their impact is minimised by the PCC2 (pulse coded calibration) technique. An RF Characterization mode is implemented to monitor individual elements of the antenna. This mode is based on the PCC512 pulse coded calibration technique. The expected 3sigma accuracy for internal calibration of PG is about 0.3 dB/ 3deg. The expected 3sigma accuracy of RF characterization mode is about 0.4 dB / 5deg.

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.

The paper discusses the design of aperture-coupled microstrip patch antennas for dual linear polarisation with special emphasis on achieving a wide bandwidth and a high polar- isation isolation. The coupling behaviour of crossed slot and offset slot designs is discussed and compared to each other. Several design examples for aperture-coupled antenna ele- ments illustrate how the polarisation isolation decreases as the bandwidth of the antenna elements is increasing. A design example for an 8xl element subarray for a frequency in X- band (9.6 G Hz) shows a standing wave ratio of VSWR< 1..5 and a polarisation isolation of better than 2.5 dB within a bandwidth of 470 MHz.