The impact of large scale ionospheric structure on radio occultation retrievals
Abstract. We study the impact of large-scale ionospheric structure on the accuracy of radio occultation (RO) retrievals of atmospheric parameters such as refractivity and temperature. We use a climatological model of the ionosphere as well as an ionospheric data assimilation model to compare quiet and geomagnetically disturbed conditions. The largest contributor to ionospheric bias is physical separation of the two GPS frequencies as the GPS signal traverses the ionosphere and atmosphere. We analyze this effect in detail using ray-tracing and a full geophysical retrieval system. During quiet conditions, our results are similar to previously published studies. The impact of a major ionospheric storm is analyzed using data from the 30 October 2003 "Halloween" superstorm period. The temperature retrieval bias under disturbed conditions varies from 1 K to 2 K between 20 and 32 km altitude, compared to 0.2–0.3 K during quiet conditions. These results suggest the need for ionospheric monitoring as part of an RO-based climate observation strategy. We find that even during quiet conditions, the magnitude of retrieval bias depends critically on ionospheric conditions, which may explain variations in previously published bias estimates that use a variety of assumptions regarding large scale ionospheric structure. We quantify the impact of spacecraft orbit altitude on the magnitude of bending angle error. Satellites in higher altitude orbits (≧700 km) tend to have lower biases due to the tendency of the residual bending to cancel between the top and bottomside ionosphere. We conclude with remarks on the implications of this study for long-term climate monitoring using RO.