BackForwardInstrument:  MWR (Sentinel-3) 

Instrument details
Acronym MWR (Sentinel-3)
Full name Micro-Wave Radiometer
Purpose Water vapour correction for the radar altimeter (SRAL)
Short description
  • 2 channels: 23.8 and 36.5 GHz
  • Monitoring and calibration information here
Background

Evolution of MWR on ERS-2 and Envisat
Scanning Technique

Nadir-only viewing, associated to the supported radar altimeter
Resolution 20 km
Coverage / Cycle Global coverage in 1 month for 30 km average spacing, or in 10 days for 100 km average spacing
Mass 24.2 kg Power 26 W Data Rate 5 kbps

 

Providing Agency ESA
Instrument Maturity Backed by strong heritage
Utilization Period: 2016 to 2038
Last update: 2024-09-23
Detailed characteristics
Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Earth observation instrument
  • Passive microwave radiometer
  • Cross-track, special or non-scanning microwave radiometer
WIGOS Subcomponents No WIGOS subcomponents have been defined.
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Integrated Water Vapour (IWV)
Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Integrated Water Vapour (IWV)*4 - fairOver sea only.. Along-track only.MW channel(s) in the water vapour band around 23 GHz