Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich

Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich is the first flight unit of the Copernicus Sentinel-6/Jason-CS ocean altimetry programme, formerly designated Jason-CS A. It launched on 2020-11-21 from Vandenberg on a Falcon 9 rocket into a non-sun-synchronous reference orbit at 1336 km altitude, 66 degree inclination, with a 10-day exact repeat. The programme is a partnership of EUMETSAT (routine operator), CNES, ESA, NASA, NOAA, and the European Commission. The primary payload is the Poseidon-4 Ku/C-band SAR radar altimeter, which measures sea-surface height, significant wave height, and ocean wind speed. Supporting instruments include the Advanced Microwave Radiometer-Climate (AMR-C) and the High-Resolution Microwave Radiometer (HRMR) for wet-tropospheric and coastal-zone correction, a GNSS radio-occultation receiver for atmospheric profiling, and GNSS, DORIS, and laser retroreflector systems for precise orbit determination. A Radiation Environment Monitor (REM) tracks the space radiation environment. The mission maintains the long-term sea-level record established by the TOPEX/Poseidon - Jason series and also contributes inland water level measurements. ^[1][2][3]