COSMIC-2 Status and GNSS Radio Occultation Results

Abstract

<p>We present status and atmospheric retrieval results for the FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 (COSMIC-2) mission. COSMIC-2 mission jointly managed by NOAA and Taiwan's National Space Organization (NSPO) and consists of six satellites launched on June 25, 2019 into a 24-degree inclination orbit. The primary payload is the JPL developed Tri-GNSS Radio-occultation System (TGRS). Tracking data from two upward looking precise orbit determination antennas are used for orbit and clock determination as well as ionospheric total electron content retrieval. Two limb-viewing radio occultation antennas provide more than 4000 daily profiles of the neutral atmosphere (e.g. bending angle, refractivity and temperature) from typically 60 km to 1 km above the Earth's surface. The secondary payloads are the Ion Velocity Meter (IVM) and tri-band Radio Frequency Beacon (RFB). The UCAR data processing center receives level-0 data from a set of downlink stations and processes them into higher level weather and space weather products in near real-time and post-processing modes. Products are transferred in near real-time to NOAA, NSPO, and operational weather centers worldwide. In this presentation we summarize mission/instrument status and summarize science results from the cal/val and initial operating phases of the mission. Results presented will include geographic coverage, neutral atmosphere profile quality and impacts on numerical weather prediction, as well as space weather product evaluation. We conclude with future activities and timelines.</p>