The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC is a joint Taiwan - U.S. mission that provides a constellation of six identical micro-satellites with unprecedented opportunities for global observations of weather, climate, ionosphere/space weather and geodetic research. The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission was successfully launched on April 15, 2006 (Taiwan time). Each microsatellite carries an advanced GPS receiver (GOX) for radio occultation and precision orbit studies , a tri-band beacon (TBB) transmitter, which transmits 150, 400, and 1067 MHz radio beacons to ground-based receivers for ionospheric tomography and radio wave scintillation studies, and a tiny ionosphere photometer (TIP) for ionospheric airglow observation in nadir direction (135.6 nm). The satellite mission provides up to 2,500 radio occultation observations on vertical profiles of atmospheric air density, temperature, and water vapor as well as ionospheric electron density per day.

This is an opportunity for students who are U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents to attend and participate in a special "student session" of the Taiwan-hosted, 4th Asian Space Conference to be held in Taipei, Taiwan October 1-3, 2008. The student session of this international workshop is sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of International Science and Engineering, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) COSMIC Program, National Space Organization (NSPO) Taiwan and National Central University (NCU) Taiwan.

The student travel dates are September 27 - October 5, 2008 and include site visits to NSPO and Taiwan universities as well as tours of Taipei.

Application submission deadline: June 20, 2008

Acceptance notification: June 27, 2008

Poster submission deadline: Sept 12, 2008

Send applications and letters of recommendation to:
Kim Prinzi Kimbro
UCAR COSMIC Project Office
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO 80307
Phone: (303) 497-2600
Fax: (303) 497-2610