Sentinel-1 Mission operations concept

As part of the European Copernicus programme (formerly Global Monitoring for Environment and Security - GMES), the Sentinel-1 mission, based on a constellation of two SAR satellites, will ensure continuity of C-band SAR observations, building on ESA´s and Canada´s heritage on satellite SAR systems (ERS, ENVISAT and RADARSAT). 2014 marks the launch of the first Sentinel-1 satellite, which took place from Kourou on 3^rd April on a Soyuz launcher. The Sentinel-1 mission operations concept follows the overall Copernicus Space Component operations concept. The mission will be operated based on stable and predefined observation scenarios and associated systematic production schemes. During the Full Operations Capacity of the mission, the observation plans will make optimum use of the maximum SAR duty cycle within the technical constraints of the overall system, with the main objective of satisfying the observation requirements from the Copernicus services and for use by ESA and EU Member States. In addition, a secondary objective is to some extent ensure the continuity of ERS/ENVISAT SAR data exploitation, including in particular the requirements from the scientific communities. For programmatic and technical reasons, a so-called Ramp-Up operations phase has been defined, during which the capacity of the overall system, including the ground segment, will progressively increase, together with the gradual release of the operationally qualified products. The Ramp-Up phase will lead to the Full Operational Capacity of the system with the two-satellite constellation in orbit. The process of collecting the Sentinel-1 observation needs and deriving the baseline observation scenarios is described in the paper at high level. An overview of the main types of services and applications to be supported by Sentinel-1 and the category and sources of observation requirements is provided. The resulting observation plans for the first months of operations are described at high- level.