Earth Explorer 11 Candidate Mission Seastar Report for Assessment - Revealing fast dynamics at ocean margins

Seastar is one of four mission candidates to the ESA Earth Explorer 11 call, an innovative mission concept dedicated to observing fast-evolving small-scale ocean surface dynamics in all coastal seas, shelf seas and marginal ice zones. Seastar would measure fast-evolving small-scale ocean dynamics with critical 1 day revisit time and 1 km resolution to study exchanges of heat, carbon and nutrients at boundaries between land, the cryosphere, the atmosphere and the deep ocean. It would deliver the first comprehensive high- resolution description of currents, winds and waves in the global coastal, shelf and marginal ice zones to improve their representation in models and identify coastal hazards, pollution pathways and impacts on marine energy, food and ecosystems. Seastar would carry a high-squint three-azimuth along-track radar interferometer, enabling the simultaneous observation and separation of ocean surface total currents and vector winds with unmatched revisit, coverage, and sensitivity.