What is GPS/MET?
The GPS/MET experiment is a proof-of-concept program, which
is jointly sponsored by the National Science Foundation
(NSF), the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA), and the National Aeronautical and
Space Administration
(NASA). The
program is being conducted by scientists at the University Corporation
for Atmospheric Research
(UCAR), the University
Navstar Consortium (UNAVCO),
the National Center for Atmospheric Research
(NCAR), the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL),
and the University of Arizona.
The private sector is also participating in GPS/MET.
Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC)
provided launch and spacecraft
services. In addition, Allen Osborne Associates, Inc.
supported development of the special receiver needed to meet
the high-accuracy science requirements for GPS sounding.
The GPS/MET receiver is one of two payloads that was
carried into a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) on OSC's MicroLab-1 satellite.
MicroLab-1 is one of a three satellite payload which was launched
by a Pegasus rocket on April 3, 1995.
The Objectives:
The objective of the GPS/MET experiment is to use signals
from GPS satellites occulted by the Earth to demonstrate
active limb sounding of the atmosphere.
The experiment is observing more than one
hundred 60-to-100-second-long globally distributed
occultations of GPS signals every day. Dual-frequency GPS
occultations are extracted from these signals by the
orbiting receiver and sent to a ground station where they are
processed into different levels of data products. These
GPS/MET data products are available to the
scientific community on a timely basis for weather, climate,
and other scientific research.
About GPS
GPS/MET is only one of many users of GPS, the Global Positioning System.
Here is
a good article about GPS in general.
For more information contact:
Bill Schreiner, Orbit Scientist (schrein@ucar.edu)
Doug Hunt, POCC Programmer (dhunt@ucar.edu)
Return to GPS/MET Home
July 1995 Preliminary Report