If today Earth Observation is a “standard” activity,

If we can monitor ground and structural deformation from the space with millimetre accuracy,

If we can use InSAR as a real “time machine” thanks to thousands of archive SAR images,

If Sentinel-1 and many other SAR missions are able to acquire incredible radar data of the Earth under all whether conditions,

If InSAR is an operative tool used as an everyday source of information in many applications…

If all of this is possible it is because the grandfather of SAR, the satellite ERS-1 has been a great success.

My first InSAR result was achieved thanks to this incredible and visionary mission.

Still, the early data provided by ERS-1 looked like garbage.

But thanks to the tenacity of ESA scientists, in a few hours the mystery was solved, making history of SAR missions!

Enjoy this thrilling video by ESA about the story of the first ERS-1 image!

Alfredo Rocca, Ph.D., PG. is our Vice President of Operations. He is building and managing the team in EO59 that is producing InSAR core software (SarProZ), training, and data, and is on a mission to transform the world of InSAR from strictly scientific to a more accessible and open platform while maintaining excellent data quality.