The Sky is in Fact, Not Falling

Update 18 January 2022: Read the latest interesting statements released by the ESA president and reported by Spacenews

The satellite radar industry globally was revolutionised by the 2014 launch of the first Sentinel 1 space craft by ESA and Copernicus. A joint effort of the European Union and the European Space Agency which made raw SAR data openly available. Something which was exclusively the domain of highly costly commercial operators was now spurring widespread innovation in a niche area of science. The recent disruption in data from the twinned Sentinel 1b has brought to light just how critical this service has become.

Fortunately, a set of four Sentinel 1 series radar satellites were ordered by the EU/ESA of which two are presently in orbit - Sentinel 1A and 1B. The third is planned to be launched this calendar year, Sentinel 1C will add further capabilities in temporal resolution (revisit time) and extend the power twins into triplets.

Catching global attention in recent days has been news that Sentinel 1B is offline due to an anomaly. A remarkable testiment to the success of the Copernicus program and the Sentinel 1 is in the fact that what was once a true niche of the remote sensing world is now getting global coverage from Space.com, Politico, and The Times.

While the anomaly begin just prior to Christmas on December 23, 2021 we are only just now beginning to hear the fervour about Sentinel 1B’s troubles. That is credit to two factors, one is the robust nature of the work Sentinel 1B has accomplished in its 5 year service life thus far. Work that enables the InSAR community, such as EO59, to develop high accuracy deformation data from the global data set it built. Yet, the more critical fact is that its twin, Sentinel 1A continues to operate normally without any difficulties.

It is also relevant that for the entirety of the United States there has never been Sentinel 1B data available. Due to some peculiar choices of the EU/ESA there has only ever been Sentinel 1A data in use across the continent. This means that few American users of the data will experience any change in their experience. What changes they would experience would be related to temporal resolution downgrading from 6 to 12days.

Sentinel 1 has never been the only star in the sky, while it is still the only super powered freebie. There is an ever growing constellation of SAR satellites, driven in-part by the success of the Sentinel 1 operations. With high resolution commercial data available from the Italian Space Agency’s X-Band CosmoSky-MED, Airbus and it’s X-Band (TerraSAR-X/Tandem-X, and PAZ), C-band from RadarSAT/MDA, L-Band from ALOS PALSAR, and in the world of change detection the tremendous number of small satellites in orbit from both ICEYE and Capella Space. We at EO59 actively collaborate with Airbus Defence and Space and Capella while we supply software in support of the ICEYE mission. The loss of any single space craft will not have a significant impact to EO59 downstream partners.

Importantly, Sentinel 1C will be launched this year, with Sentinel 1D following in 2023. When focusing on SAR satellite missions and availability the outlook is positive, and improving. This is why we work with constellations of space craft, always redudancy.

Keep in mind that the raw data available for free from the Sentinel 1 twins, or for purchase from others, must be processed, validated and interpreted for use by engineering professionals. A common misconception, at the onset, is the idea that someone could simply acquire a raw image and interpret it directly. While there are a suite of free SAR processing tools available they require expertise and only enable you to get so far in your experience. This is where our own SARProZ software and bespoke data services come in. On our mission to make InSAR accessible we provide you with an array of options and freedom to choose what suits you best.

Reports of Russian Jamming of Sentinel 1B

As news of the Sentinel 1B anomaly have spread so too have older spurious reports of Russian jamming of the space craft in areas along the border with Ukraine. These reports are questionable and certainly are not of any concern to downstream users. In fact in just the previous days ESA has challenged anyone willing to try to hack their Ops-SAT spacecraft. “The in-built robustness of OPS-SAT makes it the perfect flying platform for ethical hackers to demonstrate their skills in a safe but suitably realistic environment,” explains Dave Evans, OPS-SAT Mission Manager.

“This is an exciting opportunity to engage with and learn from the best cybersecurity minds across Europe, using a platform specifically developed for learning lessons to improve our current and future missions.” 

If you are curious about the interplay between the Sentinels and the military take a look at this fascinating article.

No Time To Die

The world cautiously awaits the Sentinel 1B return to action. The talented mission support staff of ESA are working to provide a patch that will restore the spacecraft to normal operations. Keep in mind, this two ton space craft flying at thousands of km/h is not an iPhone. Updates take time on sophisticated modelling systems in test before lengthy uploads. It is normal for troubled spacecraft to have several weeks of downtime during troubleshooting.This is simply an excellent time to be aware of the tremendous capabilities this mission has brought us, how it is growing and how you can make use of it!

You can stay tuned to updates from Copernicus system operations here, and access the early January 2022 mission report here.

Thumbnail image on cover copyright: ESA/ATG medialab