ROSE-L (Sentinel 12) (original) (raw)

ROSE-L [Thales Alenia Space]

ROSE-L (Radar Observing System for Europe - L-Band) or Sentinel 12 is an earth observation mission in the framework of ESA's Copernicus program.

ROSE-L will carry an L-band SAR. Since the longer L-band signal can penetrate through many natural materials such as vegetation, dry snow and ice, the mission would provide additional information that cannot be gathered by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 C-band radar mission. It would be used in support of forest management, to monitor subsidence and soil moisture and to discriminate crop types for precision farming and food security. In addition, the mission would contribute to the monitoring of polar ice sheets and ice caps, sea-ice extent in the polar region, and of seasonal snow.

ROSE-L is a 3-axis stabilized satellite based on the new Thales Alenia Space Multi-Mission Platform product line (MILA) and will embark the L-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Instrument dedicated to the day-and-night monitoring of land, ice and oceans offering improved revisit time, full polarimetry, high spatial resolution, high sensitivity, low ambiguity ratios and capability for repeat-pass and single-pass cross-track interferometry. It is based on a 5-panel deployable 11 m × 3.6 m L-Band, highly innovative and lightweight planar Phased Array Antenna (PAA). The satellite will also carry a set of three Monitoring Cameras (CAM) to monitor the deployment of the SAR antenna and the solar arrays.

In July 2020, ESA signed a contract with Thales Alenia Space as a prime contractor to build the satellite.