Status of COSMIC and Missions of Opportunity

Bill Schreiner

and CDAAC Team

COSMIC Retreat

Nov 4, 2010

CDAAC

NESDIS

GTS

NCEP

ECMWF

CWB

UKMO

Canada Met.

JMA

1500-2000 WMOBUFR Files per day withLatency ~ 75-90min

Getting COSMIC Results to Weather Centers

JCSDA

MeteoFrance

COSMIC Operational Processing

Science & Archive

TACC

AFWA

Input Data- COSMIC data- Attitude data- GPS ground data- GPS NDM Bits- GFS Forecast- IGS/IGU ORB/CLK- Bernese Config files

ResearchCommunity

SFTP

UCAR/Unidata’sLDM

WGET

RTSs:AlaskaNorwayMcMurdoWallopsNy-alesundCordobaAF/Hanscom

Providing data to > 1,350 registered users from 56 countries

Successful COSMIC Profiles 4/21/06-11/1/10

Neutral Atmosphere ~ 2.5MIonosphere EDPs ~ 2.6M

• LEO POD and excess phase (<15 cm, <0.15mm/s 3D rms)• ~2.6M neutral atmospheric profiles:

- Bending angle noise ~1.5 micro-rad- Refractivity precision 0.1-0.2 % between 8-30km

• > 3M Absolute TEC data arcs:- Absolute accuracy ~ 2-3 TECU (being evaluated)- Relative accuracy ~ 0.0024 TECU at 1-Hz

• ~2.6M Electron Density Profiles:- NmF2 (F2 layer peak) Accuracy ~20% (compared to Ionosondes)- hmF2 (F2 layer height) Accuracy ~20 km (compared to Ionosondes)

• Scintillation Indices (S4):- ~2.6M available from occultation profile events (altitudes < 120 km)- 1 Hz data available from > 3M line of sight tracks to all GPS in view

• TIP Night-side Radiances: - TIP set new standard for sensitivity of UV instruments, ~500

counts/s/Rayleigh- > 17,800 hours of quality controlled data

COSMIC Data Products

Current COSMIC Spacecraft/Payload Status

FM1 FM2 FM3 FM4 FM5 FM6

Space-craft

Batteryconcern

- Lost 1 of 2 solar arrays-Average ~50 % duty cycle- Battery concern

- Frozen solar array drive- Average ~50% duty cycle- Lost contact Aug 1, 2010

Batteryconcern

LostcontactSep 26,2010

Batteryconcern

GOXPayload

-POD-01 low SNR

- - -POD-01 low SNR- OFF

- Lost POD-00

POD-00,03 low SNR

GPS RO Firmware Update Status

• Firmware version 4.5.3 improvements tested on FM1 from Oct 1-9, 2010- Transition from OL to CL for rising occultations NOT improved- L2C tracking still has problems

- ½ cycle slip problem fixed - SNRs lower than expected by ½- No L2C rising occultations of good quality

- Tracked deep signals ~ -350 km HSL- Collected 50 Hz L1 C/A amplitude data on reference satellites- Tested RFI snooper (diagnostic SNR information)- Improved logging of OL model information

• JPL is investigating problems with 4.5.3• FM1 running version 4.5.3 without new capability• Upload to other FMs when JPL provides update

Testing of deep OL tracking (down to HSL=-350km) on FM-1 on Oct.5-6, 2010.

1) Down to what heights the LT RO signals can be observed and need to be tracked?2) What other signals (contaminant to RO) are observed?

Lower tropospheric RO signalobserved down to -300 km.Missing deep signals results innegative inversion bias in BA.

Non-RO signal presumablyfrom another (GPS) satellite.Not a significant error source.

Unknown non-RO signal(the same 50 Hz modulationas of the RO signal).

GPS RO Firmware Update Status

• Hopefully version 4.5.3 will improve quality and quantity of occultations

• UCAR recently discovered firmware bug affecting FM6 (tracking very few rising occultations). Fixed with command upload.

• Reduce POD satellites tracked to increase channels for occultation tracking

• UCAR and JPL will continue to upload/verify firmware enhancements to keep COSMIC mission productive

GNSS RO Possible Missions of Opportunity (MOOS)

(Excluding NASA Decadal Missions)

GNSS RO Possible Missions of Opportunity

Mission Launch-Duration

GNSS RO

Payload

Orbit (alt/inc/ LT) # Occs

Per day

Operational/Real-Time

F7/C2 2015 JPL TriG (GPS,Galileo)

800km/72,24°/- >8,000 Yes

METOP-B 2012 GRAS (GPS) 817km/98.7°/09:30LT ~600 Yes

OceanSat-2 2009 ROSA (GPS) 720km/98.3°/12:00LT ~500 No

KOMPSAT-5 2010 IGOR+ (GPS) 685km/98.5°/06:00LT ~500 No

Megha-Tropiques TBD ROSA (GPS) 867km/20°/- ~500 No

SAC-D TBD ROSA (GPS) 657km/98.5°/10:15LT ~500 No

TanDEM-X 20 IGOR (GPS) 514km/97.4°/18:00LT ~500 No

PAZ 2012 IGOR+ (GPS) 510km/97.4°/- ~500 No

EQUARS 2012 IGOR (GPS) 750km/20°/- ~500 No

CNOFS 2008 BlackJack (GPS) 853/405km/13°/- ~250 Best effort

SAC-C 2000 BlackJack 715km/98.5°/10:15LT ~200 Best effort

Missions of OpportunitySAC-C (Satélite de Aplicaciones Cientificas – C)

• Argentinian CONAE mission launched Nov 2000

• 715km altitude, 98° inclination, 10:15 LT

• JPL BlackJack, Open Loop, four single patch antenna

• Near real-time data provided by Germany’s GFZ and CONAE

• CDAAC providing 140-180 occultations per day to NOAA

• ~ 50-60% success from tracked profiles

• CDAAC working with Tom Meehan and CONAE to- configure GPS receiver to track rising occultations all day (now only 10-18 UTC)- reduce negative impact of aging oscillator

• CDAAC still vetting near real-time SAC-C data

Near Real-time SAC-C/COSMICGlobal stats

SAC-C COSMIC

Missions of OpportunityC/NOFS CORISS

• Communication/Navigation Outage Forecast System (C/NOFS)

• USAF mission launched Apr 16, 2008

• 400km X 850km, 13° inclination

• C/NOFS Occultation Receiver for Ionospheric Sensing and Specification (CORISS)

• JPL/Aerospace developed, Closed Loop, single patch antenna

• AF/Hanscom providing near real-time data from AFSCN network

• CDAAC providing 125-150 tropical occultations per day (~ 3 COSMIC FMs) to NOAA

• Profiles truncated below 8 km due to CL tracking limitations

• Only day-side occultations, UCAR working with Paul Straus to modify occultation tracking to get night-side data

• Possibility to upload OL firmware, but cpu limited

• CDAAC still vetting near real-time C/NOFS data

C/NOFS CORISS20<Lat<30

C/NOFS COSMIC

8km cutoff

Missions of OpportunityMetop-A/GRAS

• EUMETSAT mission launched 2006

• 820km, 98.7° inclination, 09:30 LT

• GRAS (GNSS Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding) Occultation Receiver

• High gain antenna, USO for zero-differencing

• UCAR/COSMIC funded by EUMETSAT to investigate Metop/GRAS structural uncertainty with closed loop data. Chris presenting final report now in Darmstadt.

• UCAR/COSMIC US funding used to develop open loop processing

• CDAAC has initiated CL/OL post-processing of Metop/GRAS data

• CDAAC could process near real-time data that is provided by NOAA

Metop/GRAS Study Summary

UCAR-EUMETSAT: 2007.274• Orbits estimated at

EUMETSAT and UCAR show no significant bias

• UCAR -EUMETSAT BA’s agree without any bias

• BA differences consistent with RO-Trends CHAMP comparisons

• Gaps in GRAS data contribute to structural uncertainty below 10 km 

• GRAS zero difference processing reduces noise in stratospheric BA profiles 

 

Missions of Opportunity

• TerraSAR-X, German mission, Launch Jun 2007- BRE IGOR- GFZ providing NRT ~200 setting profiles to GTS (UCAR assisted GFZ in

debugging problem)

• Tandem-X, German mission, Launch Jun 2010- BRE IGOR- Identical orbit as TerraSAR-X, useful for scientific studies

• OCEANSAT-2, Indian mission, Launch Sept 2009- ROSA receiver- Yaw-biased attitude, 35 degrees- Commissioning phase, no data available

• KOMPSAT-5, Korean mission, IGOR+, Launch 2010?- BRE IGOR+

• PAZ, Spanish mission, IGOR+, Launch in Jan 2012- IGOR+- Tom Meehan says firmware must be modified to provide data useful for RO.

This effort is not funded