COSMIC Status and Research Highlights Bill Kuo UCAR COSMIC NCAR ESSL/MMM Division

COSMIC (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate) 6 Satellites was launched: 01:40 UTC 15 April 2006 Three instruments: GPS receiver, TIP, Tri-band beacon Weather + Space Weather data Global observations of: Pressure, Temperature, Humidity Refractivity Ionospheric Electron Density Ionospheric Scintillation Demonstrate quasi-operational GPS limb sounding with global coverage in near-real time Climate Monitoring A Joint Taiwan-U.S. Mission FORMOSAT-3 in Taiwan

Over 1 Million Profiles in Real Time 4/21/06 - 7/16/2008 Neutral AtmosphereIonosphere 1,191,884 profiles 1,455,973 profiles 808 registered users from 42 countries

Presentation of first results from COSMIC/ FORMOSAT-3 was published in Bulletin of American Meteorological Society, March 2008 Anthes et al.

Impact of COSMIC on Hurricane Ernesto (2006) Forecast Without COSMIC With COSMIC Results from Hui Liu, NCAR

Impact of COSMIC on Hurricane Ernesto (2006) Forecast GOES Image With COSMIC GOES Image from Tim Schmitt, SSEC

Assimilation of COSMIC GPSRO Soundings during Genesis of Ernesto WRF/DART ensemble Kalman filter data assimilation system 36-km, 36-members, 5-day assimilation Assimilation of 171 COSMIC GPSRO soundings (with nonlocal obs operator, Sokolovskiey et al) plus satellite cloud-drift winds Independent verification by ~100 dropsondes. 171 COSMIC GPSRO soundings during August 2006 From: Hui Liu, Jeff Anderson, CISL

06/8/22 12Z 06/8/21 12Z 06/8/23 12Z 06/8/24 12Z 06/8/25 12Z Analysis increment in Q (water vapor) due to the assimilation of COSMIC GPSRO data.

With COSMIC No COSMIC 06/8/21 12Z 06/8/22 12Z 06/8/23 12Z 06/8/24 12Z 06/8/25 12Z Genesis of Hurricane Ernesto (2006) Continuous data assimilation during genesis stage with WRF/DART system Cloud and Rain water

Atmospheric River case: Nov 6-8, 2006 Based on study by M. Ralph, P. Neiman and G. Wick, NOAA)

12 COSMIC soundings used to construct X-section along NW-SE axis through the AR The COSMIC soundings yield cross-sectional thermodynamic structures comparable in character and detail to previous aircraft-based dropsonde surveys. COSMIC-Derived Cross Section of an Atmospheric River Tropopause Polar cold front Tradewind inversion Atmospheric river Reverse thermal gradient - LLJ

Total of 370 COSMIC plus 63 CHAMP GPSRO soundings. All other operational data used by NCEP are assimilated, in addition to GPSRO data, using the NCEP Regional GSI system. Assimilation of GPS RO data for an Atmospheric River Event From Ma et al. (2008) - A MMM - NCEP - COSMIC collaboration

OBS Local CNTL Non- Local 24-h accumulated precipitation ending at 1200 UTC 7 November 2006

An example of strong inversion layer on top of ABL Radiosonde data 23 January S, 5.70W RO observables modeled from the radiosonde data. The “step-like” structures in bending angle and refractivity PBL study by Seregey Sokolovskiy (COSMIC) and Don Lenschow (MMM)

Distribution of heights of strong inversion layers (BAL > 1E-2 rad) over North America Winter: - fewer strong inversion layers over continent, more over the ocean southwards - shallower ABL over continent - deeper ABL over the ocean than in Summer Summer: most sharp inversion layers (pronounced ABL top) over the ocean and plains; less over mountains

PBL height estimated by COSMIC PBL height averaged over 7 month period, Jan-July - 07

Mean ABL height cross-section along the line AB (left) and DC (right). Vertical lines indicate the error bars PBL height estimated by COSMIC California coast to HawaiiS. America - VOCALS region

Ionospheric Climatology from COSMIC Data Lei, J., S. Syndergaard, A. G. Burns, S. C. Solomon, W. Wang, Z. Zeng, R. G. Roble, Q. Wu, Y.-H. Kuo, J. M. Holt, S.-R. Zhang, D. L. Hysell, F. S. Rodrigues, and C. H. Lin, Comparison of COSMIC ionospheric measurements with ground-based observations and model predictions: preliminary results, J. Geophys. Res., 112, A07308, doi: /2006JA012240, 2007.

Neutral Winds derived from COSMIC Data Luan, X., and S. C. Solomon, Meridional winds derived from COSMIC radio occultation measurements in winter, J. Geophys. Res., in press, 2008.

Extremely cold tropical tropopause temperatures Locations of COSMIC soundings with cold point temps <185 K Current work is exploring the association with thin cirrus clouds observed by CALIPSO (these clouds may also incorporate nitric acid) From Bill Randel (ACD)

Future Complete COSMIC mission ( ) Plan for next RO mission: - 12 satellite constellation - Tracking GPS, Galileo and GLONASS (10,000 soundings per day) - Shortened latency for space weather COSMIC launch picture provided by Orbital Sciences Corporation

Thank You ! FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Workshop 1-3 October 2008, Taipei, Taiwan