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EUMETSAT and Radio Occultations. Christian Marquardt, Axel von Engeln, Christophe Accadia. CHAMP. GRACE. Metop-B. Metop-C. Metop-A. Background: Radio Occultation Missions. SAC/C. COSMIC. TerraSAR-X. OCEANSAT-2. KOMPSAT-5. Megha-Tropiques. Planned. SAC/D. Research. Best Effort.
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EUMETSAT and Radio Occultations Christian Marquardt, Axel von Engeln, Christophe Accadia
CHAMP GRACE Metop-B Metop-C Metop-A Background: Radio Occultation Missions SAC/C COSMIC TerraSAR-X OCEANSAT-2 KOMPSAT-5 Megha-Tropiques Planned SAC/D Research Best Effort TanDEM-X Operational COSMIC-II NOW
EUMETSAT and Radio Occultations - Present • GRAS as operational RO mission for 15+ years • State-of-the-art RO instrument • 650 occultations / day / instrument (sustained) • With launch of Metop B (early 2012) • 2 GRAS instruments in orbit • as long as GRAS/Metop-A can be operated (or until Metop-C launch) • GRAS Ground Support Network (service provided by ESA/ESOC) • high rate fiducial ground network (40 stations, mostly available on IGS as well) • GPS orbits and clocks in NRT (latency 2 hrs) • operational availability (≥ 95%), latency (≤ 15 mins obs) and 24/7 support • navigation bit network under consideration • GSN raw data provided to UCAR and NSPO, used for operational COSMIC processing
EUMETSAT and Radio Occultations - Future • Post-EPS: The follow-on system for the Metop sequence of satellites (EPS) • User-driven requirements process • takes into account NWP, nowcasting, climate, atmospheric chemistry, oceanography, hydrology and EPS continuation • defines priority rank of possible missions (process still ongoing) • Phase 0 (mission analysis) completed in 2009 • Phase A (feasibility studies) 2009 - 2011 • Phase B (preliminary definition) 2011 – 2013 • Phase C/D (detailed definition & production) 2014+ • Need date 2020
EUMETSAT and Radio Occultations - Future • Current mission prioritisation (2008, but still valid after 2009 discussions): • Remaining 16 candidate missions are of ‘Medium’ or ‘Low’ rank • Take into account that VII and SCA are also aiming at nowcasting, oceanography and hydrology applications (which RO doesn’t serve that well). (see http://www.eumetsat.int/groups/pps/documents/document/pdf_peps_pard.pdf for details)
EUMETSAT and Radio Occultations - Future • Post-EPS mission requirements for Radio Occultation • GRAS performance as baseline / improvements considered • GPS, Galileo, possibly GLONASS (TBC) and BEIDOU / COMPASS (TBC) • Exploiting new civil frequencies • Raw sampling / open loop • Space weather monitoring (on opportunistic basis) • Early stage of definition - Instrument and mission concepts will be further analysed during phase A of the Post-EPS process.