Sergey Sokolovskiy

THE COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3 MISSION : Early Results

The radio occultation (RO) technique, which makes use of radio signals transmitted by the global positioning system (GPS) satellites, has emerged as a powerful and relatively inexpensive approach for sounding the global atmosphere with high precision, accuracy, and vertical resolution in all weather and over both land and ocean. On 15 April 2006, the joint Taiwan-U.S. Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC)/Formosa Satellite Mission 3 (COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3, hereafter COSMIC) mission, a constellation of six microsatellites, was launched into a 512-km orbit. After launch the satellites were gradually deployed to their final orbits at 800 km, a process that took about 17 months. During the early weeks of the deployment, the satellites were spaced closely, offering a unique opportunity to verify the high precision of RO measurements. As of September 2007, COSMIC is providing about 2000 RO soundings per day to support the research and operational communities. COSMIC RO dat...

Analysis and validation of GPS/MET data in the neutral atmosphere

The Global Positioning System/Meteorology ( GPS/MET) Program was established in 1993 by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research ( UCAR) to demonstrate active limb sounding of the Earths atmosphere using the radio occultation technique. The demonstration system observes occulted GPS satellite signals received by a low Earth orbiting ( LEO) satellite, MicroLab-1, launched April 3,1995. The system can profile ionospheric electron density and neutral atmospheric properties. Neutral atmospheric refractivity, density, pressure, and temperature are derived at altitudes where the amount of water vapor is low. At lower altitudes, vertical profiles of density, pressure, and water vapor pressure can be derived from the GPS/MET refractivity profiles if temperature data from an independent source are available. This paper describes the GPS/MET data analysis procedures and validates GPS/MET data with statistics and illustrative case studies. We compare more than 1200 GPS/MET neutral atmosphere soundings to correlative data from operational global weather analyses, radiosondes, and the GOES, TOVS, UARS/MLS and HALOE orbiting atmospheric sensors. Even though many GPS/MET soundings currently fail to penetrate the lowest 5 km of the troposphere in the presence of significant water vapor, our results demonstrate 1°C mean temperature agreement with the best correlative data sets between 1 and 40 km. This and the fact that GPS/MET observations are all-weather and self-calibrating suggests that radio occultation technology has the potential to make a strong contribution to a global observing system supporting weather prediction and weather and climate research.

GPS Sounding of the Atmosphere from Low Earth Orbit: Preliminary Results

Abstract This paper provides an overview of the methodology of and describes preliminary results from an experiment called GPS/MET (Global Positioning System/Meteorology), in which temperature soundings are obtained from a low Earth-orbiting satellite using the radio occultation technique. Launched into a circular orbit of about 750-km altitude and 70° inclination on 3 April 1995, a small research satellite, MicroLab 1, carried a laptop-sized radio receiver. Each time this receiver rises and sets relative to the 24 operational GPS satellites, the GPS radio waves transect successive layers of the atmosphere and are bent (refracted) by the atmosphere before they reach the receiver, causing a delay in the dual-frequency carrier phase observations sensed by the receiver. During this occultation, GPS limb sounding measurements are obtained from which vertical profiles of atmospheric refractivity can be computed. The refractivity is a function of pressure, temperature, and water vapor and thus provides informat...

Analysis and validation of GPS/MET radio occultation data in the ionosphere

Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation signals received by a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite provide information about the global distribution of electron den- sity in the ionosphere. We examine two radio occultation inversion algorithms. The first algo- rithm utilizes the Abel integral transform, which assumes spherical symmetry of the electron density field. We test this algorithm with two approaches: through the computation of bend- ing angles and through the computation of total electron content (TEC) assuming straight line propagation. We demonstrate that for GPS frequencies and for observations in LEO, the as- sumption of straight-line propagation (neglecting bending) introduces small errors when monitoring the F2 layer. The second algorithm, which also assumes straight-line propagation, is a three-dimensional (3-D) inversion constrained with the horizontal structure of a priori electron density fields. As a priori fields we use tomographic solutions and the parameterized real-time ionospheric specification model (PRISM) when adjusted with ionosonde data or ground-based GPS vertical TEC maps. For both algorithms we calibrate the occultation data by utilizing observations from the part of the LEO that is closer to the GPS satellite. For in- versions we use dual-frequency observational data (the difference of L1 and L2 phase ob- servables) which cancel orbit errors (without applying precise orbit determination) and clock errors (without requiring synchronous ground data) and thus may allow inversions to be computed close to real time in the future. The Abel and 3-D constrained algorithms are vali- dated by statistically comparing 4 days of inversions with critical frequency (foF2) data from a network of 45 ionosonde stations and with vertical TEC data from the global network of GPS ground receivers. Globally, the Abel inversion approach agrees with the foF2 correlative data at the 13% rms level, with a negligible mean difference. All tested 3-D constrained in- version approaches possess a statistically significant mean difference when compared with the ionosonde data. The vertical TEC correlative comparisons for both the Abel and 3-D con- strained inversions are significantly biased (-30%) by the electrons above the 735-km LEO altitude.

Tracking tropospheric radio occultation signals from low Earth orbit

Propagation of radio occultation signals through the tropical lower troposphere with severe refractivity gradients results in significant spreading of the signal spectrum. Under such conditions a signal acquisition technique which tracks large random troposphere-induced phase accelerations more reliably than a generic phase-locked loop has to be applied. This paper discusses the results of simulations of open loop tracking of radio occultation signals that were generated with data from high-resolution tropical radiosondes. The signal has to be down-converted in real time in the receiver on orbit to a low mean residual frequency by use of a phase (Doppler) model based on predicted orbits and refractivity climatology. The down-converted complex signal is then low-pass filtered and sampled. The phase in excess of the phase model must be reconstructed from the sampled and down-linked signal in postprocessing. This may require an additional down-conversion to eliminate (minimize) aliasing of harmonics in the spectrum. Then the accumulated phase can be reconstructed by resampling the signal at a higher rate to resolve the cycle ambiguities. A fast algorithm for prediction of the Doppler based on the refractivity climatology and an algorithm for the detection of Doppler mismodeling based on sliding window spectral analysis of the down-converted signal are developed and tested. The accuracy of the Doppler modeling, ±(15-20) Hz, the required filter bandwidth, 100 Hz, and the sampling rate, 50-100 Hz, are estimated.

Modeling and inverting radio occultation signals in the moist troposphere

Accurate modeling of radio occultation signals is performed by solving the Helmholtz equation with the use of a multiple-phase-screen technique. Refractivity is assumed spherically symmetric, and vertical profiles are reproduced from high-resolution tropical radiosondes. As a result, the characteristics of the signals, which are important for their tracking in low Earth orbit, are evaluated: the spectral bandwidth, ∼50 Hz, and the random phase acceleration, ∼1000 Hz/s. The complex signals are inverted with the use of two radio holographic methods: back propagation and sliding spectral (radio optics). For the back propagation method, finding the position of the auxiliary trajectory which provides an unambiguous bending angle function of impact parameter appears to be a problem. For the sliding spectral method a simple technique, which takes into account the whole spectral content of the signal without identification and selection of local spectral maxima, is introduced and tested. The sliding spectral method allows for the stable reconstruction of bending angles and refractivity with vertical resolution of ∼0.5 km. The small-scale laminated structure of refractivity results in propagation of radio occultation signals down to significantly lower observation altitudes than in the case of smooth refractivity. Information content of radio occultation signals at those low altitudes is important for the radio holographic inversions.

Improved Mapping of Tropospheric Delays

Abstract The authors compare several methods to map the a priori tropospheric delay of global positioning system (GPS) signals from the zenith direction to lower elevations. This is commonly achieved with so-called mapping functions. Dry mapping functions are applied to the hydrostatic delay; wet mapping functions are used to map the zenith wet delay to lower elevation angles. The authors compared the following mapping techniques against raytraced delays computed for radiosonde profiles under the assumption of spherical symmetry: (a) the Niell mapping function; (b) mapping through the COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere with added water vapor climatology; (c) the same as b with added use of surface meteorological temperature, pressure, and humidity; and (d) use of the numerical reanalysis model of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research. Based on comparisons with all available global radiosondes (∼1000 per day), for every fifth day of 1997 (73 days)...

Estimating atmospheric boundary layer depth using COSMIC radio occultation data

This study presents an algorithm for estimating atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) depth from Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation (RO) data. The algorithm is applied to the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) RO data and validated using highresolution radiosonde data from the island of St. Helena (16.08S, 5.78W), tropical (308S‐308N) radiosondes collocated with RO, and EuropeanCentre for Medium-Range WeatherForecasts (ECMWF) high-resolution global analyses. Spatial and temporal variations of the ABL depth obtained from COSMIC RO data for a 1-yr period over tropical and subtropical oceans are analyzed. The results demonstrate the capability of RO data to resolve geographical and seasonal variations of ABL height. The spatial patterns of the variations are consistent with those derived from ECMWF global analysis. However, the ABL heights derived from ECMWF global analysis, on average, are negatively biased against those estimated from COSMIC GPS RO data. These results indicate that GPS RO data can provide useful information on ABL height, which is an important parameter for weather and climate studies.

Inversions of radio occultation amplitude data

Radio occultation remote sensing of the Earths atmosphere consists of satellite-to-satellite observations of phase and amplitude of radio waves that propagate through the atmosphere. The observed excess phase along with the positions and velocities of the satellites are inverted into bending angle as a function of impact parameter and then into vertical profiles of refractivity, pressure, and temperature in the neutral atmosphere, or into electron density in the ionosphere. The retrieved profiles are assigned to the perigee points of the sounding rays. Amplitude data are normally not used, except when solving diffraction back propagation problems. In this paper a simple method to utilize amplitude radio occultation data is discussed. Equations based on geometric optics are considered for the inversion of an amplitude into bending angle. These inversions do not require high coherence of radio waves or precise orbit determination, as with phase inversions, but they do require precise calibration of the amplitude. Even though amplitude inversions are not so precise as phase inversions, they may still be useful for a number of applications. When compared to phase inversions they allow the optimization of the filter bandwidth for phase inversions, the detection of multipath propagation, and the localization of electron density irregularities in the ionosphere. These applications are demonstrated by processing of the Global Positioning System/Meteorology (GPS/MET) radio-occultation data collected onboard the satellite Microlab-1.

Assessing the accuracy of a linearized observation operator for assimilation of radio occultation data : Case simulations with a high-resolution weather model

Abstract Assimilation into numerical weather models of the refractivity, Abel-retrieved from radio occultations, as the local refractivity at ray tangent point may result in large errors in the presence of strong horizontal gradients (atmospheric fronts, strong convection). To reduce these errors, other authors suggested modeling the Abel-retrieved refractivity as a nonlocal linear function of the 3D refractivity, which can be used as a linear observation operator for assimiliation. The authors of this study introduce their approach for the nonlocal linear observation operator, which consists of modeling the excess phase path, calculated along certain trajectories below the top of an atmospheric model. In this study (not aimed at development of an observation operator for any specific atmospheric model), both approaches are validated by assessing the accuracy of both linearized observation operators by numerical simulations with the high-resolution Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and comparin...