Completion of the AMR-C Instrument for Sentinel-6

The Advanced Microwave Radiometer – Climate Quality (AMR-C) is part of the European Sentinel-6A/B series, a collaboration between ESA and NASA, of two Earth-observing satellites which will be launched in 2020 and 2025. Compared to its predecessor, Jason-3, the two AMR-C radiometer instruments have an external calibration system which enables higher radiometric stability accomplished by moving the secondary mirror between well-defined targets. Sentinel-6 allows continuing the study of the ocean circulation, climate change, and sea-level rise for at least another decade. Besides the external calibration for the AMR heritage radiometer (18.7, 23.8, and 34 GHz channels) the AMR-C contains a High-Resolution Microwave Radiometer (HRMR) with radiometer channels at 90, 130, and 168 GHz. This subsystem allows for a factor of 5x higher spatial resolution at coastal transitions. This paper presents a brief description of the instrument and the measured performance of the completed AMR-C-A and AMR-C-B instruments.