Preparations for and first results of the "Calibration and interpretation of ERS-1 SAR imagery over land" AO-NL3 project

Some two years before the launch of the ERS-1 satellite in July 1991 the project proposal "Calibration and Interpretation of ERS-1 SAR Imagery over Land" was accepted by the European Space Agency ESA. This report is a short write up on the prepatory and calibration work done for this project. The project history is discussed and a first quality analysis of ERS-1 SAR data is given. The current project status of the AO-NL3 experiment is summarized. Finally, some conclusions are presented.