DocumentCode :
1004746
Title :
Profiling the Atmosphere Using the Airborne GPS Radio Occultation Technique: A Sensitivity Study
Author :
Xie, Feiqin ; Haase, Jennifer S. ; Syndergaard, Stig
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Earth & Atmos. Sci.,, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN
Volume :
46
Issue :
11
fYear :
2008
Firstpage :
3424
Lastpage :
3435
Abstract :
Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation (RO) sounding, with its high vertical resolution temperature and humidity profiling capability, is revolutionizing atmospheric science, particularly through assimilation in numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. Currently, the observations are derived from GPS receivers onboard low Earth orbiting satellites. However, with the current number of satellites, it is difficult to provide dense sounding measurements in a specific region within a limited time period. With a GPS receiver onboard an airplane, the GPS RO technique offers such an opportunity while retaining the high vertical resolution sounding capability. The GNSS Instrument System for Multistatic and Occultation Sensing is currently under development for the National Science Foundation´s High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research (HIAPER) aircraft. This paper presents a sensitivity analysis of the airborne occultation technique that will be used for the HIAPER system. The results demonstrate an anticipated overall accuracy of better than 0.5% for the retrieved refractivity from the surface to about 1 km below the airplane, where the expected airplane velocity errors of up to 5 mm/s limit the accuracy. The effects on the retrievals due to horizontal variations in atmospheric refractivity are significant, and retrieval errors may reach several percent inside frontal systems when the front is perpendicular to the ray paths and within 200 km of the tangent point. In general, the airborne GPS RO system provides a promising new data source for NWP and targeted observational studies.
Keywords :
Global Positioning System; atmospheric humidity; atmospheric temperature; radiowave propagation; remote sensing; Earth orbiting satellites; GNSS Instrument System for Multistatic and Occultation Sensing; Global Navigation Satellite system; Global Positioning System; HIAPER aircraft; High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research; National Science Foundation; airborne GPS radio occultation technique:; atmospheric humidity profile; atmospheric refractivity; atmospheric temperature profile; numerical weather prediction models; Airplanes; Atmosphere; Global Positioning System; Humidity; Instruments; Low earth orbit satellites; Refractive index; Satellite broadcasting; Temperature sensors; Weather forecasting; Airborne; Global Positioning System (GPS); aircraft; atmospheric measurements; microwave radio propagation; radio occultation (RO);
fLanguage :
English
Journal_Title :
Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on
Publisher :
ieee
ISSN :
0196-2892
Type :
jour
DOI :
10.1109/TGRS.2008.2004713
Filename :
4685938
Link To Document :
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