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AB STRACTThe Tai wan/US FORMOSAT-3/COS MIC (FORMOsa SAT el lite mis sion -3/Con stel la tion Ob serv ing Sys tem for Me te o rol ogy, Ion o sphere and Cli mate) sat el lite con stel la tion was suc cess fully launched on 14 April 2006. It is ex pected to le ver age the use of the GPS (Global Po si tion ing Sys tem) ra dio occultation data for at mo spheric and ion o spheric re search to im prove global weather fore casts and aid cli mate change re lated stud ies. FORMOSAT-3/COS MIC, to gether with the Eu ro pean MetOp, Ger man CHAMP and US/Ger man GRACE-A sat el lites, form a 9 sat el lite con stel la tion for pre cise at mo spheric sound ing on a global scale. This sat el lite con stel la tion is expected to provide about 3500 occultation measurements daily.Re cent re sults and the sta tus of the CHAMP and GRACE-A or bit and occultation data anal y sis are re viewed and com ple mented with a re view of ini tial re sults from FORMOSAT-3/COS MIC at GFZ. The sig nif i cantly in creased po ten tial of the CHAMP, GRACE-A and FORMOSAT-3/COS MIC con stel la tion for at mo spheric stud ies, com pared to sin gle sat el lite mis sions, is dem on strated for se lected ap pli ca tions such as global mon i tor ing of wa ter va por dis tri bu tions, tropo pause parameters and ionospheric irregularities.

[1] The noisy and impulsive fluctuations in the CHAMP radio occultation (RO) amplitude data are similar to the Ctype and S-type ionospheric amplitude scintillations formerly observed at 1.5 GHz in the mid-latitude region in satellite-to-Earth Inmarsat links. These amplitude scintillations can be associated with different types of ionospheric structures. S-type amplitude variations can be explained by the influence of inclined plasma layers in the ionosphere where the RO signal trajectory is perpendicular to the sharp plasma gradient. Simulation indicates the possibility to reveal the spatial distribution of the electron density in the inclined ionospheric layers from analysis of the S-type RO amplitude variations.

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