About us
ISARDSAT was founded in 2006 in Barcelona with the mission to improve the knowledge of our planet Earth through Remote Sensing.
Today, we are a team of 50+ experts in remote sensing for space and scientific applications based at Barcelona, Catalonia, with a subsidiary in Guildford, UK.
years of Earth
Observation
Observation
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Remote Sensing
Experts
Experts
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Earth Observation
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Two decades of steady,
independent growth
2006
Foundation of isardSAT and first ESA contract: Long-term support for Envisat
2008
isardSAT opens offices at Parc Tecnològic Barcelona Activa. First scientific project: MalarSat
2009
Launch of SMOS and start of its Cal/Val studies
2010
Launch of CryoSat-2, whose data has been processed by isardSAT in many projects ever since
2011
First Sentinel-6 ESA contract with Airbus
2012
isardSAT joins the Sentinel-3 Mission Performance Centre (S3MPC). Implementation of the operational soil moisture processor at a 1 km resolution.
2013
Opening of the UK subsidiary in Surrey Research Park, Guildford.
2014
isardSAT consolidates the implementation of altimetry processors for ESA
2015
First Horizon project led by isardSAT
2016
Launch of Sentinel-3A
2017
isardSAT team reaches 25 people
2018
First contract for the CRISTAL mission
2019
Coastal monitoring projects kick off. First Industrial PhD completed at isardSAT
2020
Lobelia spins off. Launch of Sentinel-6A: all its Level-1 altimetry products are generated with the processor developed by isardSAT
2021
Installation of the first isardSAT corner reflector in Montsec
2022
Contract for EPS-SG mission for EUMETSAT
2023
isardSAT moves offices to 22@ district
2025
CRISTALair Arctic campaign kicks off
2026
France subsidiary opens in La Tor de Querol. isardSAT becomes ISARDSAT
Our team
Mònica Roca i Aparici
Managing and R&D Director
Mònica is the founder and Director of isardSAT group. As a Senior Engineer and Scientist, she also acts as R&D Director, and provides senior scientific and technical support to all isardSAT’s research projects. With over 25 years of experience in altimetry, her main expertise area, she also runs some of isardSAT’s altimetry projects.
María José Escorihuela
Investigadora científica sènior
María José has a PhD in Environmental, Space and Universe Science and is Senior Research Scientist expert on water resources monitoring from microwave remote sensing data at isardSAT. Her application field is on remote sensing using passive and active microwave to study hydrology and climate change. She is responsible of the development and the validation of models and algorithms to retrieve geophysical variables from satellite data and technical leader of several international R&D projects. She is also a PhD thesis supervisor and occasional reviewer for some peer-review journals.
Lluís Vinyals
Administrative Director
Lluís is a co-founder and the Administrative Director at isardSAT. He manages all non-technical activities within the Company: HR, Finance, IT, Legal and Operations, reporting to the Managing and R&D Director. Lluís is involved in the preparation of new project proposals and brings to isardSAT his experience on R&D Project Management.
Albert Garcia-Mondéjar
Senior R&D Engineer and Manager
Albert joined isardSAT Barcelona in 2011 as R&D Engineer, became R&D Director at isardSAT UK in 2014 and since June 2019 is R&D Manager at isardSAT Barcelona. He has wide experience in algorithm development for the SAR Altimetry missions. His main tasks include managing projects, designing ground processors as well as implementing and validating algorithms from L0 to L2.
Ester Vendrell
Operations Manager
With a 20 years’ experience in Earth Observation, Ester has solid skills in managing research and operational projects as well as in coordinating ESA and EC funded projects. She is now Operations Manager at isardSAT and project manager for several projects.
Gorka Moyano
Software Architect
Gorka is software architect. He is in charge of the design and implementation of the processing software in its operational stage, as well as serving as a link between the scientific and the software components. Also, he coordinates the development team in the Space and Technology team.
Pablo García
Senior R&D Radar Engineer
Pablo is R&D Radar Engineer at isardSAT. His main activities include the development, testing and improvement of processing algorithms for space altimetry missions, specially on the instrumental calibration. From these mission’s datasets, he works in scientific applications, focussed on coastal altimetry solutions. He is also involved in project management and co-writing proposals.
Ferran Gibert
R&D Engineer
Ferran is a PhD Aerospace Engineer. He has a strong background on instrumentation and data analysis for space-born gravitational wave detectors thanks to his experience in the LISA Pathfinder mission. At isardSAT, he is involved in the development and implementation of data processing techniques for SAR altimetry projects.
Mercè Natividad
Management Assistant
Mercè joined isardSAT in January 2014 overseeing all the administrative functions in the office as Management Assistant. She directly handles financial matters such as client billing, accounts payable, payroll and banking. She is involved in the coordination and implementation of functional internal procedures and also provides administrative support to the technical team in the management of technical projects and proposal submissions.
Mark Pattle
Software Engineer and Office Director
Mark is a Software Engineer at isardSAT UK. His main responsibilities include the implementation of ground processing algorithms, and software development in Python and C++ for a range of different projects. He is also Office Director at isardSAT UK.
Stéphanie Urien
Senior Engineer
Stéphanie joined isardSAT in 2021 as Senior Engineer bringing with her a 20 years’ experience in the processing of Earth Observation missions data. Her main activities include the specification, development, testing, and verification of altimetry data processing, with special focus on the Level 2 algorithms.
Bernat Martínez
Strategy & Transformation Lead
Bernat holds a Bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering and has a strong background in digital transformation, sustainability, and technology. He defines and executes the company’s strategic plan, coordinating across business units to lead its transformation and identify new growth opportunities.
Alba Granados
Alba is a mathematician and PhD in Electrical Engineering. Her expertise includes solution methods for accurate physical parameters estimation in signal-based inverse problems. She develops retracking algorithms for Level 2 processing in sea surface topography projects.
Adrián Flores de la Cruz
R&D Engineer
Adrián has a PhD in Telecommunications Engineering. He has background on Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) thanks to his experience in the PAZ mission. His main activities include the development and implementation of radar altimetry data processing with special focus on the L1A processing as well as instrumental and point target calibration.
Aida Ferro Ardanuy
Software Engineer
Aida has a MSc in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering focussed on Dynamics and Controls of Spacecraft from the University of Colorado. At isardSAT, as part of the software team, her main responsibilities include the implementation of ground processing algorithms for altimetry data.
David Llaveria
R&D Engineer
David has a background in Telecommunications Engineering, and holds a PhD in the same field. His research thesis focuses on Earth Observation for Small Satellites, with a special mention to satellite data processing with neural networks and other AI techniques. At isardSAT, he is an R&D engineer working on the CRISTAL mission.
Sergi Hernández
R&D Engineer
Sergi holds a Master’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering and is now a PhD student in Signal Theory and Communications. His research focusses in the evaluation, implementation and exploitation of novel processing algorithms for SAR altimetry.
Charlie McKeown
SAR Engineer
Charlie has a BSc in Physics with Astronomy and an MSc in Space Engineering with a focus on Remote Sensing. As part of isardSAT UK, he works as a Remote Sensing Engineer, processing SAR and altimetry data, performing data validation, and developing methods and algorithms to extract useful information.
Mariona Badenas-Agustí
Business Developer and Strategist
Mariona is an astrophysicist and holds a Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences from MIT. Her work at isardSAT focuses on advancing the company’s UK space strategy, building relationships with stakeholders across the space industry, supporting the development of innovative projects through UK and European funding initiatives, and integrating AI-driven solutions into isardSAT’s EO service portfolio.
Maria Prats
Head of Legal
Maria is a Law graduate, and has a Master’s degree in Advocacy. At isardSAT she brings her knowledge and experience concerning legal issues, adapting the business operation to the ongoing law changes. She also provides support in the day-to-day tasks of the Administration Department.
Gerard Gallardo
Space & Remote Sensing Engineer
Gerards holds a BSc in Aerospace Engineering (UPC) and a MSc in Space Research (DTU). He is a PhD student in Remote Sensing and Planetary Science at Imperial College London. His research topics include SAR change detection and performance simulations for the future ESA M5 mission EnVision, as well as projects involving radar image processing and satellite precise attitude determination.
Guillem Sánchez
R&D Scientist
Guillem is a theoretical physicist from the University of Barcelona, and completed his Master’s degree in Astrophysics, Particle Physics and Cosmology in July 2022. At isardSAT, his work focusses on the development of algorithms to derive and study geophysical variables in from satellite data.
Marcela Frota
Administrative Assistant
Marcela holds a degree in Labor Relations and Human Resources and has an MBA. She is part of the Administration team at isardSAT, where she supports the justification of grants and public funding, as well as the administrative monitoring of projects.
Lluís Bassa
Science Communicator
Lluís is a journalist specialised on environment with a Master’s degree on Territorial and Population Studies. At isardSAT, he is involved with the dissemination of some projects, and the design of specific communicative products. He is also responsible for isardSAT’s communication, as well as the website updates and social media management.
Chris Ray
Chris’s background is in Theoretical Physics. At isardSAT he works to develop mathematical models of the backscattered power of radar altimeters based on the physical nature of the sea surface and the radar. The models are used to aid in the design of altimeters and to build signal processing algorithms to make measurements with greater accurate.
Marta Molina
Head of People
Marta leads isardSAT’s People strategy, fostering a positive and engaging workplace culture, and ensuring that employees have the support they need to grow and succeed. She works closely with managers and teams to align business goals with employee experience.
Clara Colet
R&D Scientist
Clara is a theoretical physicist from the University of Barcelona and completed her Master’s degree in Physics of Complex Systems in July 2022. At isardSAT, she works in the development and implementation of data processing algorithms for SAR altimetry missions.
Roger Almasqué
Software Engineer
Roger is a recent graduate in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Barcelona with a programming background. At isardSAT, he is working as a Junior Software Engineer, developing and implementing algorithms for processing data from on-board microwave sensors of Earth Observation satellites.
Judith Cid
R&D Scientist
Judith holds a degree in Physics and a Master’s degree in Data Science. She is currently pursuing an industrial PhD in collaboration with the Ebro Observatory (URL-CSIC) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, focused on developing models for drought monitoring using satellite data and machine learning techniques.
Ollie Holmes
R&D Radar Engineer
Ollie holds an MSc in Physics with Space Science, focussing on atmospheric and magnetosphere physics, satellite scientific design and engineering, and signal processing. At isardSAT, he uses these skills in algorithm development and research.
Michel Guerra
R&D Radar Engineer
Michel graduated in 2020 in Telecommunications and Electronics Engineering at Universidad Tecnológica de La Habana with a mention in antenna systems engineering and has a MSc in Telecommunication Engineering at UPC with a focus on microwave systems and remote sensing for Earth Observation. At isardSAT, he is working on instrumental calibration and some research altimetry projects.
Berta Moreno
R&D Scientist
Berta is a recent graduate in Physics from the Universitat de Barcelona. At isardSAT, she is a Junior Software Engineer and is working on the implementation of algorithms for the processing of data from microwave imagers.
Lucas López
R&D Scientist
Lucas has a BSc in Physics Engineering, and he is currently pursuing a MSc on Modelling for Science and Engineering. At isardSAT, his work focuses on the development of algorithms to derive geophysical variables related to soil moisture and lake water level.
Irene Agudo
R&D Engineer
Irene graduated in Physics at University of Barcelona, and has a MSc in Modelisation at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She is involved in the Data Processors of the CRISTAL mission as a Software Engineer, focusing on the Level-1 processing chain.
Aïda Cunill
R&D Engineer
Aïda graduated in Mathematics at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and has a MSc in Advanced Mathematics and Mathematical Engineering. She is part of the CRISTAL mission team at isardSAT, working as a Software Engineer for the Level-1 Data Processors.
Marc Guillamat
System IT Assistant
Marc is an IT technician with experience in Windows and Linux system administration, virtualization, cloud environments and security. He is currently pursuing a BSc in Computer Engineering at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). At isardSAT, he is responsible for generating documentation, automatising IT processes, managing cloud data, and solving IT incidents in the different corporate fields.
Helena Arias
Hardware R&D Engineer
Helena graduated in a double BSc in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Electronics & Automation, and completed a Master’s in Space and Aeronautics Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). At isardSAT, she works as a Hardware Engineer, developing a radar prototype.
Bernat Descalzi
R&D Engineer
Bernat graduated in a BSc in Aerospace Engineering at UPC (Terrassa) and a MSc at ISAE Supaero (Toulouse), especialising in satellite applications and New Space. At isardSAT, he is involved in CRISTAL mission, and contributes to other projects as a R&D engineer.
Nil Cruz Carné
R&D Engineer
Nil holds a degree in Telecommunications Engineering and a master’s degree in Advanced Telecommunications Technologies (UPC), specializing in computer vision techniques and artificial intelligence. At isardSAT, he works as an R&D engineer on data processors for the CRISTAL mission, developing and validating code for the Level 1 processing chain.
Alícia Barriga
Administrative Assistant
Alícia is part of the Administration and Finance Department. She is responsible for accounting, treasury, and suppliers, as well as handling organizational tasks such as travel, meetings, and internal events, along with their associated expenses.
Selma El-Amri
Administrative Assistant
Selma is a Business Administration and Management graduate from Universitat de Barcelona. She provides support in the day-to-day tasks of the department. Her responsibilities include managing accounting tasks, processing travel expense settlements, and contributing to the smooth running of the company’s daily operations.
Find us
Barcelona
C/ Doctor Trueta, 113, 1r
08005 Barcelona, Catalonia
+34 93 350 55 08
United Kingdom
40 Occam Road. The Technology Centre
Guildford, Surrey GU2 7YG, UK
+44 (0)1483 68 5580
France
11, Rue du Campcardos
66760 La Tor de Querol, France
+33 6 77 45 31 79
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