Happy 5th Birthday Formosat-3/COSMIC!
Assembly of six COSMIC
microsatellites at NSPO
January 2006
5th F3-COSMIC Workshop
Rick Anthes
13 April 2011
Acknowledgments
• NSF
• Taiwan’s NSPO and NSC
• NASA/JPL, NOAA, USAF, ONR, NRL
Special thanks to Taiwan’s leaders, scientists and engineers.
Without Taiwan’s support none of this would have been possible!
5 Years Ago
14 April 2005
COSMIC: Major Accomplishments:
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COSMIC data routinely used in all major
global operational centers; significant
positive impacts demonstrated in global
NWP.
Significant impacts on the analysis and
prediction of typhoons, atmospheric rivers,
Mei-Yu system, heavy rainfall events….
Calibrate AMSU, SSM/I, AIRS, and
radiosonde measurements.
Study diurnal tide, stratospheric sudden
warming, QBO, stratospheric-tropospheric
interaction, Kelvin waves, gravity waves, …
Drive space-weather assimilation and
forecast systems.
Study ionospheric events and phenomena
(e.g., Wendell Sea anomaly)
Approximately 100 papers per year being
published, world-wide.
From H. Liu, J. Anderson, C. Snyder
Actual Storm
With COSMIC
Lei et al. (2007), HAO
No COSMIC
Characteristics of GPS RO Data
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Limb sounding geometry complementary to ground and space nadir
viewing instruments
Global coverage
Profiles ionosphere, stratosphere and troposphere
Only observing system from space that can profile the ABL
High accuracy (equivalent to <1 K; average accuracy <0.1 K)
High precision (0.02-0.05 K)
High vertical resolution (0.1 km near surface – 1 km tropopause)
Only system from space to observe atmospheric boundary layer
All weather-minimally affected by aerosols, clouds or precipitation
Independent height and pressure
Requires no first guess sounding
All of these
No calibration required
characteristics
Independent of processing center
have been
Independent of mission
demonstrated in
No instrument drift
peer-reviewed
No satellite-to-satellite bias
literature
Compact sensor, low power, low cost
Complements IR and microwave sounders
Calibrates and reduces biases of IR and microwave sounders
OPAC 2010 Rick Anthes
Brief History of FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC
July 1965 Mariner IV mission to Mars
~1988 JPL proposes RO mission for Earth
1993 UCAR GPS/MET proposal to NSF
1995-97 UCAR GPS/MET-1st Earth RO mission
1996 Concept of ROCSAT-3/COSMIC
originated in Taiwan (UCAR and NSC)
1997 First tech support agreement NSPO
2001 FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC project begins
2006 Launch April 14, 2006
2011 5th Anniversary of Launch (today!)
But the real history is people……..
George Chen, Rick Anthes, Jackson Chang, C.-Y. Tsay
Central Weather Bureau, Taipei June 1982
Rick
Bob
Serafin
G.
Chen
B.
Kuo
Mar. 1985 meeting with delegation from Taiwan. RL-6 building on Marine Street.
Back row: Shih-Ting Wang (CWB),K-K Chu (Chinese Culture U.), Rick Anthes, Chuck Wu
(Dir CWB), Bob Serafin, Ed Zipser, Chia-Chung Yu (Chinese Culture U.), Xiao-Ming Hsu
(RAP). Front row: Mark Helmsfield, Lo-Nan Chang (National Central U.), Rit
Carbone, George Chen (NTU), Bill Kuo, Peter Hildebrand.
1997 NCAR Foothills Lab-NSC and NSPO Visit
Yi-Der Chuang, Rick, C.-Y. Tsay, Bob S., Mike E., CH Liu, Jia-Ming Hsu, Lou Lee, Bill Chang
Signing of Agreement at NSC
August 1997
Early days of COSMIC in Taipei. August 1997. Mike Exner
(GPS/MET) , Jing-Fu Chang (Vice Chair NSC), Bob,
C.-Y. Tsay (Vice Chair, NSC)
In front of new Central Weather Bureau Building in Taipei in August 1997.
Bill Kuo, Bob, Director Shinn-Liang Shieh, Rick, Jack Lin (CWB).
COSMIC Signing May 2001
National Science Council Taipei
Back row: Betty Benmark, Jeff Reaves, Behind Bill Kuo and next
To Jeff is Tom McDermott, Pei-Yu Huang (in blue jacket), David Rogers, CH Liu,
partially hidden, Bill Chang, Chris R., Paul Chen
Front row: David Thompson, Rick, Tze-Ho Wei (NSC Chairman),
CY Tsay, Ching Hsieh (NSC Vice Chairman), Lou Lee
COSMIC Retreat October 2005
Sergey
Doug
Jay!
Chris
Bill S
Bill K
Jeff
Dave
Lidia
FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2
the story continues…..
FORMOSAT-3 Occultations – 3 Hrs Coverage
FORMOSAT-3
FORMOSAT-7 Occultations – 3 Hrs Coverage
FORMOSAT-7