Europe's new radar mission will monitor Earth with the largest antenna ever built

The European Space Agency is developing the ROSE-L mission to provide continuous, all-weather monitoring of Earth. This video introduces the project, featuring insights from the mission's lead scientists and managers on how this massive radar instrument will track climate change and environmental shifts.

The Copernicus Radar Observation System for Europe in L-band, or ROSE-L, is designed to capture high-resolution imagery of land, oceans, and ice regardless of weather or daylight. At its core is an active phased array synthetic aperture radar featuring a 40-square-meter planar antenna—an engineering feat roughly equivalent to the surface area of 10 ping-pong tables.

As one of six Copernicus Sentinel Expansion missions, ROSE-L aims to enhance Earth observation data for climate research. By tracking soil moisture, surface displacements, and forest cover, the mission will provide critical data for carbon accounting and geohazard detection. The video highlights the technical expertise behind the project through interviews with Mission Scientist Malcolm Davidson, Payload Manager Nico Gebert, and Project Manager Gianluigi Di Cosimo.

Source: New radar mission for Europe