FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Science Mission

The data from FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC will contribute significantly to a wide range of scientific investigation. The data set promises to lead to improved global weather forecasting, especially in data sparse regions including the oceans and near the poles. It will establish a global climate change "thermometer" which has unprecedented long-term stability. FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC data will probe data poor regions of the ionsophere, promising advances in Space Weather research that may eventually lead to Space Weather forecasting capabilities. Highly accurate satellite positioning data from the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC constellation will lead to advances in the description of Earth's gravitational field and benefit the solid Earth Sciences. Specifically, FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC promises to impact the following areas of research: 

Meteorology

• Demonstrate operational value for weather prediction 

• Investigation of detailed global moisture distribution 

• Monitor tropopause, and lower stratosphere temperature profiles with high resolution 

• Provide all-weather data for joint analysis with other systems like GOES 

Climate

• Provide a global "self-calibrating" data set for climate monitoring and model test 

• Provide water vapor distribution, especially in the tropics 

• Study ozone depletion 

• Study troposphere/stratosphere exchange 

• Volcanic effects 

Ionosphere

• Demonstrate operational value for monitoring global electron density field 

• Demonstrate operational value for scintillation monitoring 

• Provide electron density fields for model testing and development 

• Development of predictive models 

• Magnetospheric studies of auroral oval 

Geodesy/Gravity

• Provide data for gravitational field improvement 

• Provide data for possible GPS orbit improvement 

• Support other missions like GRACE 

• Support altimetric missions with ionospheric products 

SCIENTIFIC RESULTS FROM THE GPS/MET EXPERIMENT

The GPS/MET experiment has produced over 80 technical reports and scientific journal publications as of May 2000.  While not all these papers and reports actually use GPS/MET data, they cover a wide range of topics ranging from measurement techniques, retrieval algorithms, and verification studies to data assimilation and impact assessment.  This body of papers is a valuable resource for those interested in learning about the science and technology of radio occultation.  We are providing the following: (1) abstracts from selected publications and (2) a list of references related to GPS/MET.  The reference list is broken into two sections: (a) Pre-GPS/MET and (b) Post-GPS/MET. The Pre-GPS/MET section includes publications prior to the launch of the MicroLab-1 (April 1995). This body of papers covers the early planetary missions and pioneering work in radio occultation techniques. The Post-GPS/MET section includes publications that focus on the retrieval, verification, interpretation and assimilation of GPS/MET data, and on their application to meteorology ionosphere and climate research.

Abstracts from Selected Publications   (.pdf format)

List of References Related to GPS/MET

Pre-GPS/MET

Post-GPS/MET

SELECTED PAPERS ON FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC

In order to provide the scientific basis for the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC program, a FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Special Issue(March 2000) was recently published by The Terrestrial, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (TAO), a scientific journal published by the Chinese Geoscience Union in Taiwan. In the following, we included four papers from this special volume. The first paper, A History of GPS Sounding by Yunck et al., provides a review on the origin and evolution of the GPS radio occultation technique, from the 1960s to the present. The second paper, FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC System Description by Rocken et al., describes the present design of the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC system, including spacecraft, constellation parameters, science payloads, and the data processing system. In Applications of FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC to Meteorology and Climate, Anthes et al.  review the scientific results of GPS/MET and discuss some of the applications of FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC data to meteorology, including polar meteorology, numerical weather prediction (NWP), and climate. In Assimilation of GPS Radio Occultation Data for Numerical Weather Prediction, Kuo et al. discuss the various strategies for assimilation of GPS/MET radio occultation data and review results from recent data assimilation studies. These selected papers serve as a quick introduction to the scientific drivers of the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC program. Additional papers shall be added in the future.

Please refer to the Reference Page for a complete list of Cosmic related documents.