The Hague, South Holland, Netherlands
The scope of the section is the definition, engineering, technology breadboarding and pre-development of microwave instruments for future Earth Observation Explorer and operational missions undertaken by ESA and including Eumetsat and Copernicus missions. The types of instrument developed in the Section include passive microwave imagers/sounders for ocean, land and atmospheric sensing, and active instruments such as scatterometers, altimeters, synthetic aperture radars, subsurface sounders and atmospheric radars. Their frequency coverage extends to the sub-mm wave range.
The scope of the section are on-board payload data processing systems and technologies for satellite missions in the field of Earth observation, planetary and deep-space exploration. One particular interest is the development of on-board processing architectures and on-board networks where the section is leading the development of the SpaceWire on-board data link standard, SpaceWire compliant devices, test equipment and units and the development and standardization of SpaceFibre as very high speed extension of SpaceWire aiming at link data rates of several Gbps. In addition the development of front-end electronics, digital signal processors, re-configurable processing units, payload mass memories, instrument control units and on-board data compression. Director of the CCSDS Spacecraft On-board Interface Services (SOIS) area.