Dirk Geudtner

European Space Agency (ESA) • System Manager, Copernicus Sentinel-1

Dirk Geudtner received a Master of Science degree in Geophysics from the Technical University “Mining Academy” Freiberg, Germany in 1991, and a Ph.D. in SAR interferometry Processing Techniques and Applications from the University of Stuttgart, Germany in 1995.
He has been the ESA System Manager for the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission since March 2011, and for the ROSE-L mission from March 2020 until July 2023 as well. In this role, he is responsible for the compliance of the SAR system performance with user/science requirements including end-to-end SAR system calibration. In 1991, he joined the German Aerospace Center (DLR), where he worked as SAR scientist on the development of novel methods for satellite SAR interferometry (InSAR) data processing and analysis.
After joining the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) in 1994, he worked on the development of satellite InSAR techniques for geoscientific applications. He became a Visiting Scientist at the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS) working on differential InSAR for monitoring glacier and ice motion from 1995 to 1997. During his time at CCRS, he pioneered RADARSAT-1 InSAR demonstrating for the first time its feasibility and application potential for change detection monitoring and geomorphological mapping. In 1997, he joined DLR's Microwaves and Radar Institute, where he developed InSAR calibration concepts for the X-SAR system on the Space Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). During SRTM operations, he was the lead engineer for the in-orbit X-SAR interferometric antenna beam alignment and InSAR performance analysis at NASA's Payload Operations Control Center in Houston.
With a research grant from the German Humboldt-Foundation, between 2000 and 2002, Dr. Geudtner was a Visiting Scientist at CCRS working on new methods for the interferometric processing of Canada's RADARSAT-1 data and for the polarimetric calibration of RADARSAT-2 data.
During his 6-year assignment to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) between 2002 and 2008, he worked as mission SAR Scientist/Engineer on feasibility studies for future satellite SAR missions focusing especially on CSA's RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM). For the RCM project, he was entrusted with the lead of the external Canadian SAR expert Image Quality and Science Advisory group.
From 2009 to 2011, Dr. Dirk Geudtner worked as Scientific Advisor (Seconded National Expert) at the European Commission’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) (now Copernicus) Bureau, where he supported the establishment of a coherent space segment (Copernicus Contributing Earth Observation missions) and was also responsible for the implementation of the operational Marine and Climate Change monitoring services.

Events

International Astronautical Congress 2024

14-18 October 2024

Milan, Italy

Participation: