Sentinel-1 System Capabilities and Applications
Dirk Geudtner, Ramón Torres, Paul Snoeij, and Malcolm Davidson
European Space Agency, ESTEC
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Global Monitoring for Environment and Security
(GMES)
• EU/ESA co-funded program aiming at providing operational GMES services
based on Earth observation and in-situ data
• Provides relevant information to policy-makers, institutional EU + Member
States authorities (Core service), and local/regional users (Downstream)
Space Component – developed & coordinated by ESA
Sentinels (1-5)
Contributing (national) Missions – Data Access
In-situ component – coordinated by EEA
Observations mostly within national responsibility,
with coordination at European level
Air, sea- and ground-based systems and instrumentations
Service component – coordinated by EC
Mapping and forecasting services:
Land, Marine, Atmosphere,
Emergency, Security and Climate Change
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Sentinel-1 Mission Objectives and Requirements
• Provide routinely and systematically SAR data to GMES services
and National services focussing on the following applications:
Monitoring of marine environment (e.g. oil spills, sea ice zones)
Surveillance of maritime transport zones (e.g. European and North
Atlantic zones)
Land Monitoring (e.g. land cover, surface deformation risk)
Mapping in support of crisis situations (e.g. natural disasters and
humanitarian aid)
Monitoring of Polar environment (e.g. ice shelves and glaciers)
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Sentinel–1
Mission Facts
• Constellation of two satellites (A & B units)
• C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar Payload (at 5.405 GHz) A
B
• 7 years design life time with consumables for 12 years
• Near-Polar sun-synchronous (dawn-dusk) orbit at 698 km
• 12 days repeat cycle (1 satellite), 6 days for the constellation
• Both S-1 satellites are in the same orbital plane (180 deg.
phased in orbit)
• On-board data storage capacity (mass memory) of 1400 Gbit
• Two X-band RF channels for data downlink with 2 X 260 Mbps
• On-board data compression using Flexible Dynamic Block
Adaptive Quantization (FDBAQ)
• Optical Communication Payload (OCP) for data transfer via
laser link with the GEO European Data Relay Satellite (EDRS)
• Launch of Sentinel-1A scheduled for first Quarter of 2014
followed by Sentinel-1 B 18 months later
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Sentinel–1 System Overview
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Sentinel-1 SAR Imaging Modes (1/2)
• Instrument provides 4 exclusive SAR modes with different resolution and coverage
• Polarisation schemes for IW, EW & SM:
single pol: HH or VV
dual pol: HH+HV or VV+VH
• Wave mode: HH or VV
• SAR duty cycle per orbit:
up to 25 min in any imaging mode
up to 74 min in Wave mode
Main mode of operations: IW
satisfies most GMES user/service
requirements (i.e. resolution, swath
width, polarisation)
WV mode is continuously
operated over open ocean
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6
Sentinel-1 SAR Imaging Modes (2/2)
Mode Incidence Single Look Swath Width Polarisation Chirp
Angle Resolution bandwidth
[MHz]
Interferometric Wide 30-42 deg. Range 5 m 250 km HH+HV or
Swath (IW 1-3) Azimuth 20 m VV+VH 56.50 – 42.80
Wave mode
WV1 23 deg. Range 5 m 20 x 20 km HH or VV 74.5
WV2 36.5 deg. Azimuth 5 m Vignettes at
100 km intervals 48.2
Strip Map 20-43 deg. Range 5 m 80 km HH+HV or
S1-S6 Azimuth 5 m VV+VH 87.60 – 42.20
Extra Wide Swath 20-44 deg. Range 20 m 400 km HH+HV or
(EW 1-5) Azimuth 40 m VV+VH
22.20 – 10.40
Image Quality Parameters for all Modes (worst case)
Radiometric Accuracy (3σ) 1 dB
Noise Equivalent Sigma Zero -22 dB
Point/Distributed Target Ambiguity Ratio -25/ -22 dB
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Phase Error over 10 min 5 deg
Sentinel-1 Reference Scenario
Coverage
Average Revisit Time S-1A Satellite Average Revisit Time with S-1A + S-1B Satellites
S-1A Satellite S-1A + S-1B Satellites
Complete global After 12 days After 6 days
coverage
Ice MTZ Europe Canada Rest of Ice MTZ Europe Canada Rest of
Land Land
Number of 1-9 1-6 1-5 1-4 1-6 2-18 2-12 2-10 2-8 2-12
acquisitions (range
from - to)
Average Revisit 8,0 3,7 5,5 8,2 9,9 5,0 1,9 2,7 4,1 4,9
Time [day]
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Sentinel-1 SAR TOPS Mode
TOPS (Terrain Observation with Progressive Scans in azimuth) for Sentinel-1
Interferometric Wide Swath (IW) and Extended Wide Swath (EW) modes
• ScanSAR-type beam steering in elevation to provide
large swath width (IW: 250 and EW: 400km)
• Antenna beam is steered along azimuth from aft to the
fore at a constant rate
All targets are observed by the entire azimuth antenna
pattern eliminating scalloping effect in ScanSAR imagery
Constant SNR and azimuth ambiguities
Reduction of azimuth resolution (decrease in dwell time)
TSX-TOPS image TSX-ScanSAR image
• S-1 TOPS mode parameters:
±0.8°azimuth scanning at PRI rate with
step size of 1.6 mdeg
• TOPS was first demonstrated by DLR with
TerraSAR-X through ESA funded study
Images courtesy: DLR We care for a safer world
Sentinel-1 IW Mode Image Data Block
IW1 IW2 IW3
85km 89km 80km
Brussels
IW GRD : debursted and sub-
IW SLC: collection of focused swath merged
burst per sub-swath
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Sentinel-1 Orbital Tube and InSAR Baseline
• Satellite will be kept within an Orbital Tube
around a Reference Mission Orbit (RMO)
• Orbital Tube radius (statistical) with 50m (rms)
• Orbit control is achieved by applying
across-track dead-band control at the most
Northern point and Ascending Note crossing
• Sentinel-1 A & B will fly in the same orbital
plane with 180 deg. phased in orbit
• 12-day repeat orbit cycle for each satellite
• Formation of SAR interferometry (InSAR) data
pairs having time intervals of 6-days
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Sentinel-1 TOPS Interferometry Capabilities (1/2)
• S-1 TOPS InSAR study based on TerraSAR-X TOPS data, e.g. acquired over Atacama
desert (Chile) having 11-day repeat pass interval
• Coherence loss in ScanSAR
TSX-TOPS TSX-ScanSAR due to SNR degradation at
burst edges (after azimuth
pattern correction)
Image courtesy: P. Prats, DLR
• TOPS interferogram generation requires burst synchronization of repeat-pass datatakes
• TOPS burst duration for:
EW: 0.54 s (worst case)
IW : 0.82 s (worst case)
• S-1 requirement for
Burst Synchronization: ≤ 5ms We care for a safer world
Sentinel-1 TOPS InSAR Capabilities
• Antenna squint in Stripmap mode images induces linear phase ramps in the Impulse
Response Function (IRF) small co-registration error causes InSAR phase offset
• TOPS mode: Azimuth phase ramp (azimuth fringes) is introduced due to small co-registration
errors along with Doppler centroid variations (5 kHz) due to azimuth scanning
az 2 f DC t
err
azimuth
• Requires azimuth co-registration to
f DC t be better than 0.0027 samples in
order to obtain phase error
f DCmean less than 10 , e.g. using Image courtesy: P. Prats, DLR
Spectral Diversity approach
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Sentinel-1 Attitude Steering Modes
Roll-steering mode
• Sensor altitude changes around the orbit
• Introduction of additional satellite roll angle depending
on latitude to maintain a quasi “constant” slant range
at Hmin = 697.6 km off-Nadir = 30.25
at Hmax = 725.8 km off-Nadir = 28.65
Advantages:
• Single PRF round orbit per swath or
subswath (except for S5 (S5-N and S5-S)
• Fixed set of constant Elevation antenna
beam patterns
Total zero-Doppler steering mode
• Yaw and pitch adjustments around the orbit to account for
Earth rotation effect
• Provides Doppler centroid at about 0 Hz We care for a safer world
Sentinel-1 Observation Strategy
SAR mode selection is based on optimum use of SAR duty cycle (25 min/orbit)
satisfies most GMES user/service requirements (i.e. resolution, swath width, polarisation)
increases revisit time and coverage
enables build-up of long time series of data
high level of automation for mission planning
pre-defined operations to the maximum extent possible
minimize potential conflicts during operations, considering
constraints (e.g. mode transition time, X-band switches)
• Over land and maritime shipping routes: IW is pre-defined mode
• Over Polar areas (i.e. sea ice): IW (or EW) is pre-defined mode
• Emergency observation requests may alter the pre-defined observation scenario: use
of the SM mode
• Over open ocean: WV mode is continuously operated
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Sentinel-1 Marine Applications:
Oil Spill & Sea-Ice Monitoring
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Sentinel-1 Mission Performance Analysis
Example: Ship Detection
100m
Smaller ships
30m
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Sentinel-1
Data Access Timeliness
Data access to systematically generated products is provided according to the following timeliness:
Standard timeliness: within 24h from sensing for all systematic products
NRT timeliness:
< 3h from sensing (within 1h from downlink)
< 1h from sensing for data acquired in direct downlink
<24h
< 3h 1h
time
Inst.
sensing
S1 NRT data access
S1 NRT data access S1 24h data access
X-Band downlink
NRT & Standard data
CGS PAC
X-Band downlink
NRT & Standard Data
CGS
Inst. We care for a safer world
sensing
Sentinel-1 SAR Product Slicing
• Level-1 products are segmented in “slices” of
defined length along track, optimised per L1 (slice)
mode and product type independent
products
• Level-1 slices cover a sub-set of the data
take in along-track direction and the
complete datatake area in the across-track
direction
• Slices are in the nominal product type
projection (slant-range for SLC, ground
range for GRD)
• Slices are stand-alone products and can be Slice
handled separately in terms of archiving and concatenation
dissemination
• Slices are seamlessly “concatenable” into a
continuous product covering the complete
datatake
L1 concatenated
(GRD) products We care for a safer world
Sentinel-1 In-Orbit Commissioning Phase
Activities
Spacecraft and end-to-end SAR System performance verification and calibration
• Check-out of spacecraft and ground segment
• In-orbit verification of instrument performance and calibration:
Internal instrument calibration using network of
calibration pulses to monitor drift in Tx & Rx signal
paths, and the entire antenna system (T/R modules)
using pulse coded techniques (PCC)
Antenna pointing calibration (< 0.01)
Antenna model verification (0.2 dB (3) for absolute 2-way gain) 90
HP Rx Reference Boresight - Elevation Pattern @ 5.405 GHz
Measurement
Absolute radiometric calibration (< 1 dB (3))
Antenna Model
80
Active Gain in dBi
70
60
Radiometric stability (<0.5 dB (3)) 50
40
Geometric calibration (pixel localization: 2.5m (3)) 30
-0.2 -0.15 -0.1 -0.05 0
v=ky/k0
0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
Polarimetric calibration
Interferometric verification
• Level 0 and Level 1b SAR product verification (i.e. wrt SAR
instrument performance) To be completed within 3 months (Challenge!) We care for a safer world
Sentinel-1 Commissioning Phase
Calibration Sites
Current timeline consists of data acquisitions over:
• Transponder sites (3) in NL
• Lake area in NL for NESZ measurement
• Rainforest for antenna model verification and
radiometric calibration
• Long data takes (25 minutes) for all modes
• DLR test site for complementary calibration
activities (Corner reflectors and transponders)
• InSAR verification sites (systematic generation of
repeat-pass interferograms (e.g. Lake Uyuni,
Atacama desert, Death Valley)
• Measurement of InSAR phase stability (closed
loop phase) over Corner Reflector site at DLR
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Sentinel Data Policy
ESA Member States have adopted a
FREE and OPEN data policy
Anybody can access Sentinel data; no difference is
made between public, commercial and scientific use
open access
Sentinel data will be made available to the users via a
‘generic’ online access mode
free of charge
Data Policy still needs approval by the
European Commission
security restrictions might be implemented on
data distribution
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Conclusions
• Sentinel-1 will provide routinely and systematically SAR data for operational
monitoring tasks especially for GMES Services and National services
• Using the same SAR imaging mode (instrument settings, e.g. IW)
facilitates the build-up of data time series for long-term continuity of
observations with equidistant and short time intervals (interferogram stacks)
• TOPS burst synchronization to enable TOPS InSAR
• Sentinel-1 A & B will fly in the same orbital plane with
180 deg. phased in orbit, each with12-day repeat orbit cycle
• Formation of InSAR data pairs having time intervals of 6-days
• Small orbital tube with radius of 50m (rms) provides small InSAR baselines
Coherent Change Detection Monitoring applications
Monitoring of geophysical phenomena related to surface displacements and/or
changes in scattering properties having different time scales (mm/year – m/day)
• Collaboration with CSA’s RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) to
facilitate multi-satellite SAR monitoring requires harmonization of
data acquisition strategies and interfaces We care for a safer world
Backup Slides
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Sentinel-1 Data Acquisition Scenario
• Systematic data acquisition in main high rate IW/EW modes of max 25 min per orbit
will generate large data acquisition segments
• Leads to about 2.4 TB/per day of compressed raw data for Sentinel-1 A & B
• Wave Mode operated continuously over ocean
2 min IW
16 GB for SLC
4 GB for GRD-HR
46 GB for SLC
12 GB for GRD-HR
6 min IW
15 min IW
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Sentinel-1 Mission Objectives and Requirements
• Provide C-band SAR data continuity (at 5.405 GHz)
• Data quality similar or better than ERS/ENVISAT
(e.g. equalized performance across the swath)
• Complete global coverage within a single repeat orbit cycle
(175 orbits in 12 days) and systematic revisit
(greatly improved as compared to ENVISAT)
• Capability for repeat-pass SAR interferometry ([Link] InSAR)
• Systematic data acquisition to enable build-up of long observation
time series
• High system availability (i.e. SAR duty cycle)
• Conflict-free operations w.r.t. SAR mode selection for data acquisition
(swath width and polarization)
• On-board data latency (i.e. downlink) requires:
- max 200 min (2 orbits)
- One orbit for support of near real time (3h) applications
- Simultaneous SAR acquisition and data downlink for real time applications
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