Ionospheric GPS radio occultation measurements on board CHAMP

The GPS radio occultation technique is a rather simple and inexpensive tool for getting information about the global characteristics of the vertical electron density distribution. No other ionospheric sounding technique (bottomside/topside vertical sounding, incoherent scatter) unifies vertical profiling through the entire ionosphere with global coverage. The paper addresses retrieval methods and algorithms applied for the generation of operational products including their limitations in accuracy and spatial resolution. Preliminary results of ionospheric radio occultation (IRO) measurements carried out onboard the German CHAMP satellite are reported. The achieved accuracy of the retrieved electron density profiles (EDPs) is estimated in particular by comparing the IRO results with independent vertical sounding data from European stations. It is concluded that CHAMP-IRO measurements have the potential to establish global data sets of EDPs, contribute to ionospheric research, develop and improve global ionospheric models and to provide operational space weather information.     

Single frequency processing of Ørsted GPS radio occultation measurements

The Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation measurements obtained using the TurboRogue GPS receiver on the Danish satellite Ørsted have been processed using the single frequency method. Atmospheric profiles of refractivity and temperature are derived and validated against numerical weather prediction data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF). Results from the Ørsted GPS measurement campaign in February 2000 indicate that the single frequency method can provide retrievals with accuracy comparable to that of using two frequencies. From comparisons between measured dry temperature profiles and corresponding dry temperature profiles derived from ECMWF analysis fields, we find a mean difference of less than 0.5 K and a standard deviation of 2–4 K between 500 and 30 hPa in height. Above 30 hPa the impact of the ionosphere becomes more dominant and more difficult to eliminate using the single frequency method, and the results show degraded accuracy when compared to previous analysis results of occultation data from other missions using the dual frequency method. At latitudes less than 40° (denoted low latitudes), the standard deviation is generally smaller than at latitudes higher than 40° (denoted high latitudes). A small temperature bias is observed centered at 200 hPa for low latitudes and at 300 hPa for high latitudes. This indicates that the ECMWF analyses do not adequately resolve the tropopause temperature minimum. In the lowest part of the troposphere an observed warm bias is thought to be due to erroneous tracking of the GPS signal in cases of atmospheric multipath propagation.     

Impact of GPS radio occultation data assimilation on regional weather predictions

The impact of GPS radio occultation (RO) data assimilation on severe weather predictions in East Asia is introduced and reviewed. Both the local observation operator that assimilates the retrieved refractivity as local point measurement, and the nonlocal observation operator that assimilates the integrated retrieved refractivity along a straight raypath have been utilized in WRF 3DVAR to improve the initial analysis of the model. A general evaluation of the impact of these approaches on Asian regional analysis and daily prediction is provided in this paper. In general, the GPS RO data assimilation may improve prediction of severe weather such as typhoons and Mei-yu systems when COSMIC data were available, ranging from several points in 2006 to a maximum of about 60 in 2007 and 2008 in this region. Based on a number of experiments, regional model predictions at 5 km resolution were not significantly influenced by different observation operators, although the nonlocal observation operator sometimes results in slightly better track forecast. These positive impacts are seen not only in typhoon track prediction but also in prediction of local heavy rainfall associated with severe weather over Taiwan. The impact of 56 GPS RO soundings on track prediction of Cyclone Gonu (2007) over the Indian Ocean is also appealing when compared to other tracks assimilated with different observations. From a successive evaluation of skill scores for real-time forecasts on Mei-yu frontal systems operationally conducted over a longer period and predictions of six typhoons in 2008, assimilation of GPS RO data appears to have some positive impact on regional weather predictions, on top of existent assimilation with all other observations.     

GPS radio occultation measurements on ionospheric electron density from low Earth orbit

Since the proof-of-concept GPS/Meteorology (GPS/MET) experiment successfully demonstrated active limb sounding of the Earth’s neutral atmosphere and ionosphere via GPS radio occultation (RO) from low Earth orbit, the developments of electron density (n _e) retrieval techniques and powerful processing systems have made a significant progress in recent years. In this study, the researches of n _e profiling from space-based GPS RO observations are briefly reviewed. Applying to the Formosat-3/Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (FS3/COSMIC) data, we also present a compensatory Abel inversion technique including the effects of large-scale horizontal gradients and/or inhomogeneous ionospheric n _e obtained from an improved near real-time phenomenological model of the TaiWan Ionospheric Model. The results were evaluated by the ionosonde foF2 and foE data and showed improvements of rms foF2 difference from 29.2 to 16.5% in relative percentage and rms foE difference from 54.2 to 32.7% over the standard Abel inversion.     

GPS/INS navigation precision and its effect on airborne radio occultation retrieval accuracy

An airborne radio occultation (RO) system has been developed to retrieve atmospheric profiles of refractivity, moisture, and temperature. The long-term objective of such a system is deployment on commercial aircraft to increase the quantity of moisture observations in flight corridors in order to improve weather forecast accuracy. However, there are several factors important to operational feasibility that have an impact on the accuracy of the airborne RO results. We investigate the effects of different types of navigation system noise on the precision of the retrieved atmospheric profiles using recordings from the GNSS Instrument System for Multistatic and Occultation Sensing (GISMOS) test flights, which used an Applanix POS/AV 510 Global Positioning System (GPS)/Inertial Navigation System (INS). The data were processed using a carrier phase differential GPS technique, and then the GPS position and inertial measurement unit data were combined in a loosely coupled integrated inertial navigation solution. This study quantifies the velocity precision as a function of distance from GPS reference network sites, the velocity precision with or without an inertial measurement unit, the impact of the quality of the inertial measurement unit, and the compromise in precision resulting from the use of real-time autonomous GPS positioning. We find that using reference stations with baseline lengths of up to 760?km from the survey area has a negligible impact on the retrieved refractivity precision. We also find that only a small bias (less than 0.5% in refractivity) results from the use of an autonomous GPS solution rather than a post-processed differential solution when used in an integrated GPS/INS system. This greatly expands the potential range of an operational airborne radio occultation system, particularly over the oceans, where observations are sparse.     

Use of the L2C signal for inversions of GPS radio occultation data in the neutral atmosphere

Results from processing FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC radio occultations (RO) with the new GPS L2C signal acquired both in phase locked loop (PLL) and open loop (OL) modes are presented. Analysis of L2P, L2C, and L1CA signals acquired in PLL mode shows that in the presence of strong ionospheric scintillation not only L2P tracking, but also L1CA tracking often fails, while L2C tracking is most stable. The use of L2C improves current RO processing in the neutral atmosphere mainly by increasing the number of processed occultations (due to significant reduction in the number of L2 tracking failures) and marginally by a reduction in noise in statistics. The latter is due to the combination of reduced L2C noise (compared to L2P) and increased L1CA noise in those occultations where L2P would have failed. This result suggests application of OL tracking for L1CA and L2C signals throughout an entire occultation to optimally acquire RO data. Two methods of concurrent processing of L1CA and L2C RO signals are considered. Based on testing of individual occultations, these methods allow: (1) reduction in uncertainty of bending angles retrieved by wave optics in the lower troposphere and (2) reduction in small-scale residual errors of the ionospheric correction in the stratosphere.     

Global morphology of ionospheric F-layer scintillations using FS3/COSMIC GPS radio occultation data

We report on the FormoSat-3/Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (FS3/COSMIC) limb-viewing observations of GPS L-band scintillations since mid-2006 and propose to study global F-layer irregularity morphology. The FS3/COSMIC has generally performed more than 1000 ionospheric radio occultation (RO) observations per day. We reprocess 1-Hz amplitude data and obtain complete limb-viewing profiles of the undersampling (sampling frequency lower than Fresnel frequency) S4 scintillation index from about 80% of the RO observations. There are a few percent of FS3/COSMIC RO observations having greater than 0.09 undersampling S4max values on average. However, seven identified areas, Central Pacific Area (?20° to 20° dip latitude, 160°E–130°W), South American Area (?20° to 20° dip latitude, 100°W–30°W), African Area (?20° to 20° dip latitude, 30°W–50°E), European Area (30°–55°N, 0°–55°E), Japan Sea Area (35°–55°N, 120°–150°E), Arctic Area (>65° dip latitude), and Antarctic Area (<?65° dip latitude), have been designated to have a much higher percentage of strong limb-viewing L-band scintillations. During the years in most of the last sunspot cycle from mid-2006 to the end 2014, the scintillation climatology, namely, its variations with each identified area, season, local time, magnetic activity, and solar activity, have been documented.     

Global morphology of ionospheric sporadic E layer from the FormoSat-3/COSMIC GPS radio occultation experiment

Ionospheric sporadic-E (Es) activity and global morphology were studied using the 50 Hz signal-to-noise ratio amplitude and excess phase measurements from the FormoSat-3/Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (FS3/COSMIC) GPS radio occultation (RO) observations. The results are presented for data collected during the last sunspot cycle from mid-2006 to the end of 2017. The FS3/COSMIC generally performed more than 1000 complete E-region GPS RO observations per day, which were used to retrieve normalized L1-band amplitude standard deviation (SDL1) and relative electron density (N_e) profiles successfully. More or less 31% of those observations were identified as Es events based on SDL1 and peak SDL1 altitude criteria. We found that the peak Es-event i values are approximately proportional to the logarithms of the corresponding peak N_e differences. Five major geographical zones were identified, in which the seasonal and diurnal Es occurrence patterns are markedly different. These five zones include the geomagnetic equatorial zone (??5°?<?magnetic latitude (ML)?<?5°), two extended geomagnetic mid-latitude zones (15°?<?ML?<?55°, and ??55°?<?ML < ??15°), and two auroral zones (70°?<?ML, and ML < ??70°). The Es climatology, namely its variations with each identified zone, altitude, season, and local time has been documented.     

Finding the repeat times of the GPS constellation

Single-epoch estimates of position using GPS are improved by removing multipath signals, which repeat when the GPS constellation does. We present two programs for finding this repeat time, one using the orbital period and the other the topocentric positions of the satellites. Both methods show that the repeat time is variable across the constellation, at the few-second level for most satellites, but with a few showing much different values. The repeat time for topocentric positions, which we term the aspect repeat time, averages 247 s less than a day, with fluctuations through the day that may be as much as 2.5 s at high latitudes.     

A comparison of a Hi/Lo GPS constellation with a populated conventional GPS constellation in support of RTK: A covariance analysis

This study makes an initial comparison of three GPS-like constellations. Starting with a simplified constellation of 25 GPS satellites as a reference, GPS(25), we determine what kinematic positioning improvements would result from a constellation comprising a Hi component of 16 GPS satellites (at roughly 16.8 earth radii) coupled with a Lo component of 49 GPS satellites (at roughly 2.1 earth radii). We also include a GPS constellation of 49 GPS satellites, GPS(49), which comprises orbits like the GPS(25) constellation. The GPS(49) and the Hi(16)/Lo(49) constellations have semi-major axes selected so that they have exactly the same average number of satellites above 7.5 degrees elevation (averaged over 24 hours). What motivated this study was a need to measure the benefits, to precision differential kinematic positioning methods (i.e., RTK), which result from the higher Doppler shifts (hence speedier integrated Doppler) generated by the Lo component. Quicker initial convergence was anticipated, of course.     

Analysis of atmospheric and ionospheric structures using the GPS/MET and CHAMP radio occultation database: a methodological review

Since 1995, the global positioning system (GPS) has been exploited by the means of the radio occultation (RO) method to obtain the vertical profiles of refractivity, temperature, pressure, and water vapor in the neutral atmosphere and electron density in the ionosphere. Applying the RO method to the study of the Earths atmosphere was demonstrated for the first time with the GPS/MET experiment. Since then, several satellites with GPS receivers, suitable for RO experiments, have been launched including Oersted, SUNSAT, CHAMP, SAC-C, and GRACE. Future RO investigations that are planned now include FORMOSAT3/COSMIC and Terra-SAR missions. New elements in the RO technology are required to meet the goals of improving the accuracy and broadening the potential of the RO method. In this paper, a methodological review of RO investigations is presented to emphasize new directions in applying the RO method: measuring the vertical gradients of the refractivity in the atmosphere and electron density in the lower ionosphere, determination of the temperature regime in the upper stratosphere, investigation of the internal wave activity in the atmosphere, and study of the ionospheric disturbances on a global scale. These new directions may be relevant for investigating the relationships between processes in the atmosphere and mesosphere, the study of thermal regimes in the intermediate heights of the upper stratosphere—lower mesosphere, and the analysis of the influence of the space weather phenomena on the lower ionosphere.     

Impact of FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC GPS radio occultation and dropwindsonde data on regional model predictions during the 2007 Mei-yu season

A study of the impact of FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC GPS radio occultation (RO) and dropwindsonde data on regional model simulations for a 11-day period during the 2007 Mei-yu season is presented. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and its three-dimensional variation component, WRF-Var, are used for regional model predictions of heavy rainfall events in Taiwan. Without the use of GPS RO and dropwindsonde data, pressure and relative humidity are, in general, underestimated by the model; temperature predictions have a warm bias at the low level and a cold bias at the high level; and the east–west and north–south component winds have positive and negative biases, respectively. Incorporating GPS RO data tends to improve the prediction for longer integration. The assimilation of dropwindsonde data improves the forecast at the earlier time and at higher levels, and the improvement decreases over time. The reason the dropwindsonde data produce a positive impact earlier and the GPS RO data later is that there are few GPS RO observations in the fine domain. The large-scale simulation is first improved using the GPS RO observations, and the resulting changes can have a positive impact on the mesoscale at the later time. The dropwindsonde observations were taken inside the fine domain such that their impact can be detected early in the simulation. With both types of observation included, the prediction shows even greater improvement. At the earlier forecast time, there is nearly no impact from GPS and dropwindsonde data on rainfall forecasts. However, at the later integration time, the GPS data start to significantly improve the rainfall forecast. The dropwindsonde data also provide a positive impact on rainfall forecasts, but it is not as significant as that of the GPS data.     

Artificial ionospheric wave number 4 structure below the F2 region due to the Abel retrieval of radio occultation measurements

We analyzed the effect of the Abel inversion on the wave number 4 (WN4) structure from the GPS radio occultation (RO)–measured electron densities by using the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC (F-3/C) observations under the equinox condition. The Abel-retrieved electron density from both the F-3/C observations and the simulated results by an empirical model with an imposed WN4 structure in the F layer are investigated. It is found that the Abel inversion can reproduce the real WN4 structure well in the F2 layer. However, it will result in pseudo and reversed-phase WN4 structure in the lower altitude (F1 and E layers). Quantitatively, relative ±15% WN4 signature in the F2 layer can produce ±40% artificial WN4 in the E and F1 layers. Analysis on the F-3/C data shows about ±15% WN4 signature in the F2 layer and ±50% WN4 with reversed-phase in the E and F1 layers. The F-3/C-observed WN4 structure in the E and F1 layers might be the combinations of the real WN4 signature and the artificial effects of Abel retrieval.     

Different mechanisms of the ionospheric influence on GPS occultation signals

A local mechanism for strong ionospheric effects on radio occultation (RO) global positioning satellite system (GPS) signals is described. Peculiar zones centered at the critical points (the tangent points) in the ionosphere, where the gradient of the electron density is perpendicular to the RO ray trajectory, strongly influence the amplitude and phase of RO signals. It follows from the analytical model of local ionospheric effects that the positions of the critical points depend on the RO geometry and the structure of the ionospheric disturbances. Centers of strong ionospheric influence on RO signals can exist, for example, in the sporadic E-layers, which are inclined by 3–6° relative to the local horizontal direction. Also, intense F2 layer irregularities can contribute to the RO signal variations. A classification of the ionospheric influence on the GPS RO signals is introduced using the amplitude data, which indicates different mechanisms (local, diffraction, etc.) for radio waves propagation. The existence of regular mechanisms (e.g., local mechanism) indicates a potential for separating the regular and random parts in the ionospheric influence on the RO signals.     

Quality assessment of COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3 GPS radio occultation data derived from single- and double-difference atmospheric excess phase processing

This study evaluates the quality of GPS radio occultation (RO) atmospheric excess phase data derived with single- and double-difference processing algorithms. A spectral analysis of 1 s GPS clock estimates indicates that a sampling interval of 1 s is necessary to adequately remove the GPS clock error with single-difference processing. One week (May 2–8, 2009) of COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3 data are analyzed in a post-processed mode with four different processing strategies: (1) double-differencing with 1 s GPS ground data, (2) single-differencing with 30 s GPS clock estimates (standard COSMIC Data Analysis and Archival Center product), (3) single-differencing with 5 s GPS clocks, and (4) single-differencing with 1 s GPS clocks. Analyses of a common set of 5,596 RO profiles show that the neutral atmospheric bending angles and refractivities derived from single-difference processing with 1 s GPS clocks are the highest quality. The random noise of neutral atmospheric bending angles between 60 and 80 km heights is about 1.50e−6 rad for the single-difference cases and 1.74e−6 rad for double-differencing. An analysis of pairs of collocated soundings also shows that bending angles derived from single-differencing with 1 s GPS clocks are more consistent than with the other processing strategies. Additionally, the standard deviation of the differences between RO and high-resolution European Center for Medium range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) refractivity profiles at 30 km height is 0.60% for single-differencing with 1 and 5 s GPS clocks, 0.68% for single-differencing with 30 s clocks, and 0.66% for double-differencing. A GPS clock-sampling interval of 1 s or less is required for single- and zero-difference processing to achieve the highest quality excess atmospheric phase data for RO applications.     

An evaluation of solar radiation pressure strategies for the GPS constellation

The subtle effects of different Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite force models are becoming apparent now that mature processing strategies are reaching new levels of accuracy and precision. For this paper, we tested several approaches to solar radiation pressure (SRP) modeling that are commonly used by International GNSS Service (IGS) analysis centers. These include the GPS Solar Pressure Model (GSPM; Bar-Sever and Kuang in The Interplanetary Network Progress Report 42-160, 2005) and variants of the so-called DYB model (Springer et al. in Adv Space Res 23:673–676, 1999). Our results show that currently observed differences between GPS orbit solutions from the various IGS analysis centers are in large part explained by differences between their respective approaches to modeling SRP. DYB-based strategies typically generate orbit solutions that have the smallest differences with respect to the IGS final combined solution, largely because the DYB approach is most commonly used by the contributing analysis centers. However, various internal and external metrics, including ambiguity resolution statistics and satellite laser ranging observations, support continued use of the GSPM-based approach for precise orbit determination of the GPS constellation, at least when using the GIPSY-OASIS software.     

Phase acceleration: a new important parameter in GPS occultation technology

Based on 40 years of radio-occultation (RO) experiments, it is now recognized that the phase acceleration of radio waves (equal to the time derivative of the Doppler shift), derived from analysis of high-stability Global Positioning System (GPS) RO signals, is as important as the Doppler frequency. The phase acceleration technique allows one to convert the phase and Doppler frequency changes into refractive attenuation variations. From such derived refractive attenuation and amplitude data, one can estimate the integral absorption of radio waves. This is important for future RO missions when measuring water vapor and minor atmospheric gas constituents, because the difficulty of removing the refractive attenuation effect from the amplitude data can be avoided. The phase acceleration technique can be applied also for determining the location and inclination of sharp layered plasma structures (including sporadic E _s layers) in the ionosphere. The advantages of the phase acceleration technique are validated by analyzing RO data from the Challenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) and the FORMOSA Satellite Constellation Observing Systems for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate missions (FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC).     

An evaluation of potential solar radio emission power threat on GPS and GLONASS performance

The L-band solar radio emission has recently been regarded as a potential threat to stable GPS and GLONASS performance. However, the threat has not been completely investigated or assessed so far. We evaluate in detail the occurrence of GPS/GLONASS signal tracking failures under the direct exposure of wideband solar radio emission. By means of theoretical analysis, we found that the solar radio emission power level of 1,000?sfu (solar flux units) or higher can cause GPS/GLONASS signal tracking failures especially at L2 frequency. In order to prove this evaluation, we investigated GPS/GLONASS signal tracking failures at L1 and L2 frequencies during power solar flares X6.5 (December 6, 2006) and X3.4 (December 13, 2006). Comparing these events with weaker solar flare X17.2 on October 28, 2003, we found that L2 signal tracking failures appeared when the solar radio emission power exceeds 1,000?sfu. Therefore, our theoretical and experimental results confirm the earlier results by other authors.     

A technique for routinely updating the ITU-R database using radio occultation electron density profiles

Well credited and widely used ionospheric models, such as the International Reference Ionosphere or NeQuick, describe the variation of the electron density with height by means of a piecewise profile tied to the F2-peak parameters: the electron density, $N_m \mathrm{F2}$ N m F 2 , and the height, $h_m \mathrm{F2}$ h m F 2 . Accurate values of these parameters are crucial for retrieving reliable electron density estimations from those models. When direct measurements of these parameters are not available, the models compute the parameters using the so-called ITU-R database, which was established in the early 1960s. This paper presents a technique aimed at routinely updating the ITU-R database using radio occultation electron density profiles derived from GPS measurements gathered from low Earth orbit satellites. Before being used, these radio occultation profiles are validated by fitting to them an electron density model. A re-weighted Least Squares algorithm is used for down-weighting unreliable measurements (occasionally, entire profiles) and to retrieve $N_m \mathrm{F2}$ N m F 2 and $h_m \mathrm{F2}$ h m F 2 values—together with their error estimates—from the profiles. These values are used to monthly update the database, which consists of two sets of ITU-R-like coefficients that could easily be implemented in the IRI or NeQuick models. The technique was tested with radio occultation electron density profiles that are delivered to the community by the COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3 mission team. Tests were performed for solstices and equinoxes seasons in high and low-solar activity conditions. The global mean error of the resulting maps—estimated by the Least Squares technique—is between $0.5\times 10^{10}$ 0.5 × 10 10 and $3.6\times 10^{10}$ 3.6 × 10 10 elec/m $^{-3}$ ? 3 for the F2-peak electron density (which is equivalent to 7 % of the value of the estimated parameter) and from 2.0 to 5.6 km for the height ( $\sim $ ～ 2 %).