Identification

Title

Comparison of COSMIC and COSMIC-2 Radio Occultation refractivity and bending angle uncertainties in August 2006 and 2021

Abstract

We compare the random error statistics (uncertainties) of COSMIC (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate, C1) and COSMIC-2 (C2) radio occultation (RO) bending angles and refractivities for the months of August 2006 and 2021 over the tropics and subtropics using the three-cornered hat method. The uncertainty profiles are similar for the two RO missions in the troposphere. However, a higher percentage of C2 profiles reach close to the surface in the moisture-rich tropics, an advantage of the higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in C2. C2 uses signals from both GPS (Global Positioning System) and GLONASS Global Navigation System Satellites (GNSS). The GPS occultations show smaller uncertainties in the stratosphere and lower mesosphere (30-60 km) than the GLONASS occultations, a result of more accurate GPS clocks. Therefore, C2 (GPS) uncertainties are smaller than C1 uncertainties between 30-60 km while the C2 (GLONASS) uncertainties are larger than those of C1. The uncertainty profiles vary with latitude at all levels. We find that horizontal gradients in temperature and water vapor, and therefore refractivity, are the major cause of uncertainties in the tropopause region and troposphere through the violation of the assumption of spherical symmetry in the retrieval of bending angles and refractivity.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7cf9tt4

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2022-05-12T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact