The ROSE-L Instrument - Architecture definition and technological advancement

The ROSE-L (Radar Observing System for Europe – L band) mission is a candidate of the Copernicus Expansion Programme asking for a fully polarimetric L-band instrument, capable of mapping wide swaths at high resolution , with excellent sensitivity and ambiguity suppression. The instrument baseline that has been defined in the frame of phase A/B1 study implements an innovative architecture for simultaneously satisfying the conflicting requirements about swaths size, resolution and ambiguity suppression. At the same time, the proposed solution aims to limit the system complexity and mass to achieve the best possible balance between imaging performance and technical feasibility. A distinctive feature of the ROSE-L instrument is its capability to perform a real-time, on-board digital beamforming on receive in the elevation plane. The Rx digital beamforming and digital processing functions allow unprecedented flexibility and capabilities at Instrument level, but also require a keen monitoring, control and recovering of amplitude and phase unbalances among Rx channels. The paper outlines the SAR sensor’s technical aspect, with a specific focus on the antenna and receive electronics Sub-Systems (S/S) design.