Assessment of the new ERS-2 mono-gyro piloting mode on the quality of ERS SAR data and ERS SAR applications performance

A dedicated validation campaign (7 23 February 2000) was planned for the installation and qualification of the 1GP mode on ERS-2. In particular, the impact of this new configuration on the quality of ERS-2 SAR data and on ERS-2 SAR applications performance had to be carefully assessed in order to decide whether ERS-2 could be operationally left in 1GP mode. In order to characterise the response of different gyros to the new software, ERS-2 was piloted in mono-gyro mode using gyro 6 (1GP6) during a first phase of the campaign (10-16 Feb. 2000) and using gyro 5 (1GP5) during a second phase (from 16 Feb. 2000). At the end of the qualification campaign, ERS-2 was left in 1GP5 mode [1].