Russia is reportedly jamming European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 radar imaging satellite over.
Russian media on Jul. 25, reported that the EAS’ Sentinel-1 satellite has been repeatedly subjected to electronic warfare attacks when he was scanning areas near the country’s southern Rostov region near Ukraine.
On top of that, the recent interferences recorded by the satellite with C-band SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) are among the strongest ever detected and have a unique pattern.
It is assumed that Russia was testing a new type of electronic warfare system.
According to a tweet from “open source intelligence” social media congregation, the rather unique pattern, the strength, and interference affecting strongly both Sentinel-1 polarisations suggest something rather different than any previously detected assets.
Also added that the area near Rostov-on-Don is full of military activity and along a path of interferences from other C-SAR satellites, signals of all kinds are common there, but this is one is relevantly different.
Sentinel-1 data suggests that #Russia has a new toy which has tested/activated somewhere near Rostov-on-Don.
Still hard to pinpoint the source, but the interferences recorded by the C-SAR satellites are among the strongest ever detected and have a unique pattern.#OSINT pic.twitter.com/r0ZsJTgLBC— Putin is a Virus (@PutinIsAVirus) July 25, 2021
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect additional comments from OSINT experts.
OSINT experts on Twitter began debating and they came to the conclusion that it is radar interference of Sentinel-1 satellite images, not a jammer.
That’s C band interference, not a jammer. See the picture from the Gulf region for comparison… pic.twitter.com/3BuMUv3ryt
— Recon Talk (@notmanch_u) July 25, 2021
Jamming exactly what systems? C-SAR is operating at 5GHz hence the interference is at the same frequency. No military or commercial radars except meteorology radars operate at 5GHz in Europe. To me, that is not a jammer but another Russian system. https://t.co/0QiUdVDkqd
— Mehmet (@mikeyankeee) July 25, 2021
To my concerned followers: there are already a 🛰️Sentinel-2 equivalents for this, too! They are called “lamps” and “mirrors”. https://t.co/aXU0XApU0W
— Gerjon | חריון (@Gerjon_) July 25, 2021
It must have to do with the #Olympics because this article is gold medal material for the most ignorant take ever. https://t.co/URuUk0QEdf
— Putin is a Virus (@PutinIsAVirus) July 25, 2021
In addition, earlier in February 2020, OSINTEditor posted the analysis of similar interferences.
According to analysis, the interferences manifest themselves on satellite data as sort of lines that are always perpendicular to the satellite orbit trajectory.
The lines can be hundreds of kilometers long and tell that somewhere along those lines a powerful radio source close to 5.405 Ghz (such as some radars) is active and emitting.