ROSE-L – The L-band SAR Mission for Copernicus

A main pillar for the development of satellite missions within the Earth Observation programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) is the EU Copernicus programme, which is addressing the needs of operational users and European services. As part of the Copernicus Expansion Programme, addressing new missions that have been identified by the European Commission (EC) as priorities, ESA has recently completed the Phase-A/-B1 study for an L-band SAR mission referred to as ROSE-L (Radar Observation System for Europe at L-band). This paper will provide an overview on the current status of the mission, scientific background and mission objectives as well as the system design incl. key performance parameters.