Sentinel-1 Overview

Andrea Minchella ([email protected])

21-22/01/2016 – “ESA SNAP-Sentinel-1 Training Course”
Satellite Applications Catapult - Electron Building, Harwell, Oxfordshire
 Sentinel-1 Overview

Contents

• Sentinel-1 Mission

• Sentinel-1 SAR Modes

• Sentinel-1 Operational Products available to users

• Sentinel-1 Orbit

• SEDAS (UK Collaborative Ground Segment for Sentinel Data Access)

CATAPULT OPEN
 Sentinel-1 Overview

Copernicus: A New Generation of Data Sources

Sent-1A/B Sent-2A/B Sent-3A/B Sent-4A/B Sent-5/5P Sent-6A/B

 Copernicus is a European space flagship programme led by the European

Union

 ESA coordinates the space component

 Copernicus provides the necessary data for operational monitoring of the

environment and for civil security

 Free and open data policy

 Websites:
https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/home
https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/user-guides/sentinel-1

Classification: CATAPULT OPEN

 Sentinel-1 Overview

Sentinel–1: C-band SAR mission

 Copernicus radar imaging mission for ocean, land and emergency services

 Applications:
• monitoring sea ice zones and the arctic environment
• surveillance of marine environment (e.g. oil spill monitoring)
• maritime security (e.g. ship detection)
• wind, wave, current monitoring
• monitoring of land surface motion (subsidence, landslide, tectonics, volcanoes, etc.)
• support to emergency / risk management (e.g. flooding, etc.) and humanitarian aid in
crisis situations
• mapping of land surfaces: forest, water and soil, agriculture, etc.

 Data continuity of ERS and ENVISAT missions

 Constellation of 2 satellites
• Sentinel-1A launched on 3 April 2014
• Sentinel-1B launch scheduled for Mid 2016
Classification: CATAPULT OPEN
 Sentinel-1 Overview

Sentinel-1 Mission Facts

• Constellation of two satellites (A & B units)
• C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar Payload (at 5.405 GHz)
• 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 Sentinel-1 satellites 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 (ERDS)

Instrument operations constraints:

 SAR modes exclusivity (incl. polarisation schemes)
 SAR mode transition time (2.4 sec.)
 SAR duty cycle (25 min/orbit for the 3 high rate modes)
 Huge volume of data, potentially up to 2.4 TB/day with the two satellites

Classification: CATAPULT OPEN

 Sentinel-1 Overview

Sentinel-1 SAR Modes

Sentinel-1 SAR can be operated in 4

exclusive imaging modes with different
resolution and coverage:

Mode Rate SAR Mode

High Bit Rate IW
(HBR) EW
SM (S1  S6)
Low Bit Rate WV
(LBR)

Polarisation schemes for IW, EW and

SM:
• single polarisation: HH or VV
• dual polarisation: HH+HV or VV+VH

For Wave mode: HH or VV

Classification: CATAPULT OPEN

 Sentinel-1 Overview

Sentinel-1 Mission Performance

Classification: CATAPULT OPEN

 Sentinel-1 Overview

Terrain Observation with Progressive Scans SAR (TOPSAR)

Interferometric Wide Swath
• The Interferometric Wide swath mode is the main acquisition mode
over land.

• 250 km swath at 5 m (Range) by 20 (Azimuth) m spatial resolution

(single look).

• IW mode captures three sub-swaths using TOPS mode and a IW

SLC product contains one image per sub-swath (1 or 2
polarisations)

• Each sub-swath image consists of a series of bursts, where each

burst has been processed as a separate SLC image.

• The individually focused complex burst images are included, in

azimuth-time order, into a single sub-swath image with black-fill
IW Sub-Swaths with Minimal Overlap demarcation in between (overlap in azimuth by just enough to
provide contiguous coverage of the ground)

• The images for all bursts in all sub-swaths are resampled to a

common pixel spacing grid in range and azimuth while preserving
the phase information (de-burst and merge)

https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/user-
Resulting De-Burst and Merged IW Product guides/sentinel-1-sar/acquisition-
modes/interferometric-wide-swath
Classification: CATAPULT OPEN
 Sentinel-1 Overview

Main characteristics of the Interferometric Wide swath mode

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 Sentinel-1 Overview

ESA Operational Products available to users

LEVEL-0 PRODUCTS
Compressed, unprocessed instrument source packets, with additional annotations and
auxiliary information to support the processing.

LEVEL-1 PRODUCTS
Level-1 Slant-Range Single-Look Complex Products (SLC):
Focused data in slant-range geometry, single look, containing phase and amplitude
information.

Level-1 Ground Range Detected Geo-referenced Products (GRD):

Focused data projected to ground range, detected and multi-looked.
Data is projected to ground range using an Earth ellipsoid model, maintaining the original
satellite path direction and including complete geo-reference information.

LEVEL-2 PRODUCTS
Level-2 Ocean products
Ocean wind field, swell wave spectra and surface radial velocity information as derived from
SAR data.

Classification: CATAPULT OPEN

 Sentinel-1 Overview

Operational ESA Sentinel-1 products - L1 characteristics

• For Ground Range Products, the resolution corresponds to the mid range value at mid orbit altitude, averaged over all swaths.
• For SLC SM/IW/EW products, the resolution and pixel spacing are provided from lowest to highest incidence angle.
• For SLC WV products, the resolution and pixel spacing are provided for beams WV1and WV2.
• For SLC products, the range coordinate is in slant range. All the other products are in ground range.

Classification: CATAPULT OPEN

 Sentinel-1 Overview

Naming Conventions

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 Sentinel-1 Overview

SENTINEL-SAFE format

The SENTINEL-SAFE format wraps a folder containing

image data in a binary data format and product
metadata in XML.

A SENTINEL product refers to a directory folder that

contains a collection of information. It includes:

• a 'manifest.safe' file which holds the general

product information in XML

• subfolders for measurement datasets containing

image data in various binary formats

• a preview folder containing 'quicklooks' in PNG

format, Google Earth overlays in KML format and
HTML preview files

• an annotation folder containing the product

metadata in XML as well as calibration data

• a support folder containing the XML schemes

describing the product XML.
https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/user-guides/sentinel-1-sar/data-formats/safe-specification

Classification: CATAPULT OPEN

 Sentinel-1 Overview

Orbit impact

Credit: S-1 instrument and product performance status @ Fringe 2105, March 2015, ESA-Esrin,
Frascati, Rome (Italy)
CATAPULT OPEN
 Sentinel-1 Overview

Precise geolocation accuracy

Credit: S-1 instrument and product performance status @ Fringe 2105, March 2015, ESA-Esrin,
Frascati, Rome (Italy)
CATAPULT OPEN
 Sentinel-1 Overview

Sentinel-1 Quality Control

Website: https://qc.sentinel1.eo.esa.int

POD Restituted Orbit [AUX_RESORB]

POD Precise Orbit Ephemerides [AUX_POEORB] (more accurate than POD)
Mission Status
https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/missions/sentinel-1/mission-status
CATAPULT OPEN
 Sentinel-1 Overview

Sentinel-1 observation scenario

Implement a pre-defined and conflict-free observation plan, aiming at fulfilling, to

the maximum feasible extent, the observation requirements from:
- the Copernicus services
- the use by ESA / EU Member States

In addition, on best effort basis and in order to ensure some continuity of

ERS/ENVISAT, requirements from the science community are also considered, as
well as contribution to international cooperation activities.

 Need to find a priori the solutions on the potential conflict among users (e.g.
different SAR operation modes / polarisation required over same geographical
area)

https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/missions/sentinel-1/observation-scenario

Classification: CATAPULT OPEN

 Sentinel-1 Overview

Sentinel-1 observation scenario

High level strategy during Full Operations Capacity

• Optimum use of SAR duty cycle (25 min/orbit for 1 satellite), taking into account the
various constraints (e.g. limitation in number of X-band RF switches, mode transition
times)

• Wave Mode continuously operated over open oceans, with lower priority w.r.t. the other
high rate modes

• IW or EW modes operated over pre-defined geographical areas:

Over land: pre-defined mode is IWS

Over seas and polar areas, and ocean relevant areas: pre-defined mode is either IWS
or EWS

• The Full Operations Capacity is reached with the 2-satellite constellation (potentially up to
2.4 TB/day with the two satellites)

Classification: CATAPULT OPEN

 Sentinel-1 Overview

Sentinel-1 observation scenario

KML files are available to provide detailed information about the planned Sentinel-1
acquisitions:
https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/missions/sentinel-1/observation-scenario/acquisition-segments
Classification: CATAPULT OPEN
 Sentinel-1 Overview

SEDAS
UK Collaborative Ground Segment for
Sentinel Data Access

Classification: CATAPULT OPEN

 Sentinel-1 Overview

ESA Copernicus Data Access

 Sentinel-1 Overview

ESA-UKSA Collaboration agreement

Understanding for the Sentinel

Collaborative Ground
Segment
Signed 18th March 2015

Enables UK Collaborative GS
data access
– Direct access to Sentinel data
– Technical advice and data
processing and archival
software
 Sentinel-1 Overview

SEDAS: Background

• Airbus DS Geo-intelligence (Farnborough)

operates the Processing and Archiving facilities for
Sentinel 1 and Sentinel 2

• Satellite Applications Catapult responsible for

managing and disseminating the data to UK
commercial users

• STFC-CEDA responsible for managing and

disseminating the data to UK academic users

& other UK partners involved in CGS development

 Sentinel-1 Overview

SEDAS - SENTINEL DATA ACCESS SERVICE

Website: http://sedas.satapps.org/
• 1 month term rolling archive
• Access via spatial or temporal searches
• Automatic notification
• Full archive availability

Classification: CATAPULT OPEN

Any Question?