Sentinel-6 will carry several instruments to support its science goals. A Radar Altimeter will bounce signals off the ocean surface. Sea surface height will be determined based on the time it takes each pulse to travel from the satellite to the ocean and back again.
An Advanced Microwave Radiometer will retrieve the amount of water vapor between the satellite and ocean, which affects the travel speed of radar pulses.
Radio Occultation Antennas will measure the delay of radio signals between Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich and global navigation satellites as they slice through different layers of the atmosphere.
Other onboard instruments will be used to precisely determine the satellite’s position, such as DORIS, Laser Retroreflector Array, downlink data from S-band and X-band antennas, and Solar Array supply power.