GPS Radio Occultation and Mission Results from FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Spacecraft Constellation

Fong, Chen-Joe; Yen, Nick; Yang, Shan-Kuo; Chen, Shao-Shmg; Chi, Sien

doi:10.1109/rast.2007.4284093

Cited by 8 publications

(16 citation statements)

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“…Table I shows the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission characteristics, and Fig. 1 shows the spacecraft in deployed configuration, along with its major components [13]- [15].…”

Section: Constellation Mission Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The mission operation team in Taiwan is executing and managing all dayto-day activities of the system. Today, this team carefully conducts the deployment of the constellation and the constellation operations schedule in order to ensure that measurements are globally homogeneous and to minimize the latency of data fed into weather prediction models [13]- [15], [24], [25].…”

Section: Constellation Mission Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This has offered scientists a unique opportunity to verify the high precision of GPS RO measurements. Table II shows the constellation spacecraft performance summary as of April 15, 2007. After one year in orbit, all six FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC spacecraft were in good condition (except for the FM2 satellite, which had power shortage issues since March 2007) and were on their way toward the final constellation of six separate orbit planes with 30 • separation [6], [7], [13]- [15]. Table III shows the operational status of each subsystem in all six spacecraft.…”

Section: A Constellation Spacecraft Performance Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Suspected space weather disturbances, which are correlated to the spacecraft onboard computer reboot and spacecraft reset events, had no performance impact on the command and data handling subsystem and spacecraft system. The flight software subsystem (FSW) status of all six satellites is normal, and the spacecraft are recovered automatically as expected by design 15,2007) from abnormal reboot/reset conditions. Under normal FSW conditions, the error count is less than ten per day.…”

Section: A Constellation Spacecraft Performance Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Preliminary assessments have also shown that the GPS RO data from FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC are of better quality than those from the previous missions [7], [12]- [15], e.g., the proofof-concept GPS/Meteorology experiment, the Challenging Mini-Satellite Payload (CHAMP), and the Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas-C missions. The GPS RO soundings penetrate much farther down into the troposphere; from 70% to 90% of the soundings reach to within 1 km of the surface on a global basis [16]- [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Constellation Spacecraft System Performance: After One Year in Orbit

Fong

Yang

Chu

et al. 2008

IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing

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The FORMOSAT-3 mission, also known as Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC), is the third major project of the Formosa Satellite (FORMOSAT) series implemented by the National Space Organization of Taiwan. FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC is a joint Taiwan/U.S. mission consisting of six identical low Earth orbit satellites. All six cluster satellites were successfully launched by a single Minotaur launch vehicle on April 15, 2006. The retrieved global positioning system (GPS) radio occultation (RO) data have been freely available online to the science community since shortly after the completion of satellite bus in-orbit checkout. Having completed the verification and validation, the worldwide science communities are highly satisfied with the RO data. Scientists have hailed the RO sensors as offering the most accurate, precise, and stable thermometers in space. After one year in orbit, all six FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites were in good condition (except FM2, which had power shortage issues) and were on their way toward the final constellation of six separate orbit planes with 30 • separation. Four out of six satellites had already reached their final mission orbit of 800 km by mid-May 2007. Together, the six satellites have generated a total of more than 2500 RO data per day. However, only 50%-70% of the RO data as received one year after launch could be retrieved into useful atmosphere profiles. The retrieved RO data, about 1800 per day on average, have been assimilated into numerical weather prediction models by many major weather forecast centers and research institutes. This paper provides an overview of the constellation mission, the spacecraft system performance after one year in orbit, the technical challenges we have encountered, and the performance enhancements we have accomplished. Test between ground segment and space segment and in charge of the communication infrastructure setup and interphase test between SOCC and the remote ground stations during FORMOSAT-3 I&T phase. He is currently the Deputy Operation Director of FORMOSAT-3 Mission Operation Team. His current research interests include GPS radio occultation for the FORMOSAT-3 follow-on mission, satellite simulator, mission planning and scheduling, and long-term trending development. Chung-Huei (Vicky) Chu received the B.S. degree in atmospheric sciences from the National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan and the M.S. degree in meteorology from Penn State University, University Park. She is currently the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Mission Operations Manager of National Space Organization, Hsinchu, Taiwan. She has worked on FORMOSAT series satellite programs since 1994. She spent one year in the development of science data processing, five years in the flight operations and ground operations, and six years in mission analysis and system engineering. Cheng-Yung Huang received the B.

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“…Table I shows the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission characteristics, and Fig. 1 shows the spacecraft in deployed configuration, along with its major components [13]- [15].…”

Section: Constellation Mission Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Constellation Mission Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Constellation Spacecraft Performance Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Constellation Spacecraft Performance Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Constellation Spacecraft System Performance: After One Year in Orbit

Fong

Yang

Chu

et al. 2008

IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing

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Performance assessment in the commercial off-the-shelf receiver radio occultation mission on VELOX-CI satellite

Fang

Han

et al. 2020

Advances in Space Research

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The UT Variation of the Polar Ionosphere Based on COSMIC Observations

Liu

Zhang

et al. 2019

JGR Space Physics

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Mean polar electron content (mPEC) is used to analyze the polar ionosphere in both the Antarctic and Arctic. The mPEC is calculated over the polar region covering geographic latitudes higher than 60°from the global distributed vertical total electron contents based on electron density profiles observed by Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC). Using this parameter, the universal time (UT) variation of the polar ionosphere is quantitatively characterized. This UT variation exists an opposite phase (i.e., a 12-hr phase difference) between them. The mPEC standard deviation (SD) in the Antarctic is larger in summer and autumn (being 1.37 and 0.78 TECu, respectively) and smaller in winter (0.29 TECu) and spring (0.61 TECu). The SD in the Arctic, however, is the largest in winter (0.14 TECu). In other seasons, the SD is less than 0.1 TECu. (being 0.07 TECu in spring, 0.05 TECu in summer, and 0.08 TECu in autumn, respectively). We use SD over the mean value to describe relative intensity of mPEC variations. This relative intensity is larger in winter for both Antarctic and Arctic regions. The UT variation in intensity is much stronger in the Antarctic than in the Arctic. These characteristics are attributed to the fact that the separation of the geomagnetic pole and geographic pole is dihedral and the angle is larger in the Antarctic. The larger angle causes more electrons transported into the polar region when the geomagnetic pole is on the dayside and fewer electrons transported into the polar region when the geomagnetic pole is on the nightside. With the development of the radio occultation (RO) measurements, large amount of ionospheric data have been collected globally (Fong et al., 2007; Lei et al., 2007; Liou et al., 2005; Yue et al., 2013), making it

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GPS Radio Occultation and Mission Results from FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Spacecraft Constellation

Cited by 8 publications

References 5 publications

FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Constellation Spacecraft System Performance: After One Year in Orbit

FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Constellation Spacecraft System Performance: After One Year in Orbit

Performance assessment in the commercial off-the-shelf receiver radio occultation mission on VELOX-CI satellite

The UT Variation of the Polar Ionosphere Based on COSMIC Observations

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