Copernicus and ESA SAR Missions

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the Copernicus SAR missions, namely Sentinel-1, ROSE-L and Sentinel-1 Next Generation (NG). In particular, we discuss the Sentinel-1 SAR performance and enabling techniques for SAR interferometry (InSAR). Further, we describe the key characteristics of the ROSE-L SAR instrument. For the Sentinel-1 NG mission, we discuss potential SAR performance enhancements and novel imaging capabilities. In addition, we present different SAR system concepts and results of the preliminary mission analysis, addressing coverage and revisit time. Finally, we discuss the ESA Earth Explorer BIOMASS P-band SAR mission and its SAR instrument.