COPERNICUS SENTINEL-1 CONSTELLATION MISSION OPERATIONS STATUS

As part of the European Copernicus programme, the Sentinel-1 mission, based on a constellation of two SAR satellites, ensures continuity for C-band SAR observations for Europe. Both satellites have been launched from Kourou on a Soyuz rocket, Sentinel-1A on 3rd April 2014, Sentinel-1B on 25th April 2016. Following the completion of the constellation operational qualification phase, the routine operations of the constellation are on-going and performed at the full mission and system capacity. The mission is characterized by large-scale, frequent and repetitive observations, systematic production and a free and open data distribution policy. The paper provides high-level information on the on-going mission operations. It describes at high level the system operations, incl. the basics of the Sentinel-1 observation scenario and the satellite and ground segment operational activities. It presents few examples of Sentinel-1 mission exploitation activities in the domain of disaster management and geohazards monitoring, ones of the main thematic of IGARSS 2019.