The Ground Segment for a European Ocean Monitoring Satellite-ERS-1

At the present time the European Space Agency is making preparations for a European Remote Sensing Satellite Programme. Within this programme, the first satellite to be launched will be ERS-1, an ocean monitoring satellite carrying as payload a multi-spectral scanner and a number of active microwave instruments, namely a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), a scatterometer, an altimeter, and very likely a scientific payload still to be determined. This paper addresses that portion of the programme concerned with the preparation of the ground facilities necessary for the control of the satellite on the one hand and payload acquisition, processing, archiving and distribution of the payload data on the other.