Sentinel 1

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Sentinel 1 is a future space mission from ESA of GMES program. It is a Synthetic Aperture Radar in C-band to provided continuous imagery (day and night, and for all weather). A launch date around 2011 is foreseen.

Contents 1 Mission characteristics 2 Instruments 3 Applications 4 Industrial

[edit] Mission characteristics

• Role: Earth Observation
• Launch date: 2011
• Launch mass: ~2300 kg
• Launcher: Vega or Soyuz/Kourou
• Launch location: French Guiana
• Orbit: Sun-synchronous dawn-dusk
• Altitude: 693 km
• Orbit cycle: ~96 minutes
• Nominal duration: 7.25 years

[edit] Instruments

Sentinel 1 spacecraft are designed to carry a single C-band SAR, data storage capacity of 900Gb and 600Mbps X-band downlink capacity.

[edit] Applications

It will provide continuity of data from ERS and Envisat missions, with further enhancements in terms of revisit, coverage, timeliness and reliability of service.

A summary of applications are:

• Monitoring sea ice zones and the Arctic environment, and surveillance of marine environment.
• Monitoring land surface motion risks
• Mapping of land surfaces: forest, water and soil
• Mapping in support of humanitarian aid in crisis situations

[edit] Industrial

Prime contractor of mission is Thales Alenia Space Italy. SAR instrument will be responsibility of Astrium Gmbh.