International Radio Occultation Working Group (IROWG)

1. International Radio Occultation Working Group (IROWG) Dave Ector (co-chair NOAA) Axel von Engeln (co-chair EUMETSAT) Mitch Goldberg (rapporteur NOAA)

2. What is CGMS? (1) • established 1972 • provides a forum for the exchange of technical information on geostationary and polar-orbiting meteorological satellite systems and R & D missions, such as: • current meteorological satellite status and future plans, • telecommunications matters, • operations, • intercalibration of sensors, • processing algorithms, • products and their validation, • data transmission formats, • future data transmission standards.

3. What is CGMS? (2) • Membership:open to all operators of meteorological satellites, to prospective operators having a clear commitment to develop and operate such satellites, and to the WMO, because of its unique role as representative of the world meteorological data user community. Further CGMS Membership is open to space agencies operating R&D satellite systems that have the potential to contribute to WMO and supported programmes • Current Members:CMA, CNES, CNSA, ESA, EUMETSAT (also secretariat), IMD, IOC/UNESCO, JAXA, JMA, KMA, NASA, NOAA, ROSCOSMOS, ROSHYDROMET, WMO

4. What is CGMS? (3) • Some Activities: • launched GSICS (with WMO) • established 3 international science working groups: • International (A)TOVS Working Group (ITWG) • International Satellite Winds Working Group (IWWG) • International Precipitation Working Group (IPWG) Working groups are led by two Co-Chairs, organises regular international meetings between science, operational, and user communities (about every 2 years). Highly successful, focussed WGs concentrating on issues that can be resolved within a 12 – 36 month timeframe. Working groups formulate recommendations which are reported through the rapporteur to CGMS meetings => High Visibility.

5. IROWG • 4th CGMS Science Working Group • established at 37th CGMS meeting (Korea, ‘09) • recommendation for such WG formulated at GRAS SAF Workshop at ECMWF (UK, ‘08) • open to interested users from RO community

6. IROWG Objectives • Make recommendations to national & international agencies regarding the utilization of current RO data and the development of future RO systems;  • Suggest & promote studies aiming at the definition of future RO satellite constellations that fulfil the expected operational & research user requirements; • Encourage cooperation on ground support infrastructure for RO systems;  • Promote standard operational procedures and common software to the scientific community for processing and assimilating radio occultation measurements from satellites;  • Stimulate increased intern. scientific R & D in this field & establish routine means of exchanging scientific studies & verification results;  • Support and stimulate the training and education of the scientific community at large for the exploitation of RO product information; • Promote the exploitation of RO observations and their unique capability in the context of climate applications; • Foster communication between the RO scientific community, space agencies and science policy institutions such as the IPCC.

7. First IROWG Meeting • Following the example of other CGMS WGs, IROWG meetings will comprise of a science / conference part and a working group part. • Working groups compile recommendations, which will be reported to CGMS by rapporteur. • First meeting will make use of the OPAC (6th – 10th Sep ‘10) conference, serving as the plat-form for scientific part, followed by dedicated IROWG meeting (10th – 11th Sep 2010). • IROWG details to be provided by mid February.

8. Hope to see you all there!