Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR)

"The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) has operated on three satellites: AMSR on JAXA's ADEOS-II spacecraft, AMSR-E on NASA's EOS Aqua spacecraft, and AMSR-2 on JAXA's GCOM-W1 spacecraft. The AMSR instruments are dual-polarized, conical scanning, passive microwave radiometers. Each is placed in a near-polar orbit which allows for up to twice daily sampling of a given Earth location. A key feature of these AMSR instruments is the ability to see through clouds, thereby providing an uninterrupted view of the ocean measurements. AMSR-E measures geophysical parameters supporting several global change science and monitoring efforts, including precipitation, oceanic water vapor, cloud water, near-surface wind speed, sea surface temperature, soil moisture, snow cover, and sea ice parameters. All of these measurements are critical to understanding the Earth's climate. AMSR-2 measures weak microwave emission from the surface and the atmosphere of the Earth. From about 700 km above the Earth, AMSR-2 provides highly accurate measurements of the intensity of microwave emission and scattering." (NASA 2021)