FORMOSAT-3

AMS Breakfast Meeting FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC

Mission15 January 2007

Welcome to a new era of Earth observations!

FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC launch picture provided by Orbital Sciences Corporation

14 April 2006Vandenberg AFB

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Global Coverage - 2500 Daily Soundings by early 2007 - all weather!

•Red - Daily average Radiosondes

•Green - Daily FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Soundings

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

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Data user registration website:http://tacc.cwb.gov.tw/en/service/policy.htmor via http://www.cosmic.ucar.eduhttp://tacc.cwb.gov.tw/en/index.htm

* Select the 'Sign Up ' link under COSMIC

•Accept data use agreement

* Enter information: Name, Address, email, user_id,Password, planned use of data

• An email will be sent within 2-3 business days to indicateaccess has been granted.

Free and Open Data Access

~400 users have already registered

Free access to data

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Early Results-Weather

• Global coverage in all weather-sees through clouds!

• Accurate vertical profiles of water vapor

• Observing the atmospheric boundary layer

• Improvement of weather forecast models– Hurricanes and Typhoons– Antarctica– Improved accuracy of global weather models

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Vertical moisture profiles

Vertical profiles of water vapor pressure from two COSMIC satellites on 8 July 2006 are shown (in gray and red). The location is 21S, 71W.

The corresponding moisture profile from National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP-NOAA) analysis is shown in green dots-line.

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First atmospheric boundary layer measurements from space.Sharp boundary (ABL top) at ~ 2 km altitude

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Low-level moisture change by assimilating GPS

GPS all GPS 1

Assimilate this sounding only

Fig. 8a

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2006-08-27-12Z (102h forecast)

Sat. IR No GPS

GPS all GPS 1

Fig. 8b

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Southern Hemisphere Forecast Improvements

Sean Healey, ECMWF

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Anomaly correlation as a function of forecast day for two different experiments:

- E (assimilation of operational obs), - BND (E + COSMIC bending angle).

Only COSMIC observations available in operations have been used in BND. Only COSMIC observations < 30 km These results might have been impacted by the development stage of the GSI system

Early impact experiments (T382) with COSMIC

Lidia Cucurull, JCSDA/UCAR

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December 2006 data latency -profile arrival at UKMO (FM1 70% < 3h)

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Diagnosis of errors in regional model forecasts over AntarcticaLow-level error statistics show influence of sea-ice representation

Blue = sea ice; Green = open water

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Data Quality

Climate

Space Weather

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Deviation of pairs of RO soundings separated by less than 10 km

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Precision of GPS RO soundingsComparison of PPUTLS by Region

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

Tangent Point Separation Distance (km)

PPMT

PPMT Tropics PPMT South MidLatitde PPMT South Polar PPMT North MidLatitude PPMT North Polar

PPUTLS = Precision Parameter of Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere, which is the mean absolute differences in the 10-20 km layer

0.02% difference in refractivity, which is equivalent of 0.05 C in temperature Fig. 5b

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One Month (Sep. 06) COSMIC-CHAMP Comparison: 76 pairs, within 2 degree & 90 min

Fig. 12b

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Radio Occultation Temperature Record Data from three Missions

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a b c

Can we use GPS RO data to calibrate other instrument ?

N15, N16 and N18 AMSU calibration against COSMIC

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First collocated ionospheric profiles

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Count of Ionospheric Profiles

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Quiet

Storm

COSMIC #2 GAIM

COSMIC #2 GAIM

Comparisons during quiet and disturbed Conditions

Global Assimilation of Ionospheric MeasurementsUtah State University, (435)797-2962, schunk@cc.usu.edu;

Universities of Colorado (Boulder), Texas (Dallas), and Washington“Bringing the pieces together”

From presentation by Ludger Scherliess, Utah State University

Fig. 13a

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Comparison of NmF2 and HmF2 between COSMIC and GAIM during Apr. 21-28, 2006

Good agreement of NmF2 between COSMIC and GAIM;

Higher peak heights from GAIM than those from COSMIC

From presentation by Zhen Zeng, NCAR/HAO

Fig. 13b

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RED = COSMIC satBLUE = GPS sat

Formosat-3/COSMIC Observations of Scintillations

From presentation by Chin S. Lin, AFRL

Fig. 16

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TIP 135.6-nm passes 14 Sep 2006 FM1 FM3 FM6 0-24 UT

(2100 LT)

From presentation by Clayton Coker, NRLFig. 17

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Summary

• FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC a successful Taiwan-U.S. project• FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC launched nearly on time and within budget

(~$100M mission)• Cost-effective way of obtaining global atmospheric soundings in all

weather• High accuracy, precision and vertical resolution demonstrated• Already positive impact on weather models + hurricane forecasting• Observations of tropical boundary layer from space for first time• Only observing system to provide information on ionosphere, stratosphere

and troposphere• Expected to have major impact on climate monitoring-world’s most

accurate, precise and stable thermometer!• Free and open exchange of data— ~400 users already