scholarly journals Assimilation of GNSS radio occultation observations in GRAPES

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 7613-7639
Author(s):  
Y. Liu ◽  
J. Xue

Abstract. This paper reviews the development of the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) radio occultation (RO) observations assimilation in the Global/Regional Assimilation and PrEdiction System (GRAPES) of China Meteorological Administration, including the choice of data to assimilate, the data quality control, the observation operator, the tuning of observation error, and the results of the observation impact experiments. The results indicate that RO data have a significantly positive effect on analysis and forecast at all ranges in GRAPES not only in the Southern Hemisphere where conventional observations are lacking but also in the Northern Hemisphere where data are rich. It is noted that a relatively simple assimilation and forecast system in which only the conventional and RO observation are assimilated still has analysis and forecast skill even after nine months integration, and the analysis difference between both hemispheres is gradually reduced with height when compared with NCEP (National Centers for Enviromental Prediction) analysis. Finally, as a result of the new onboard payload of the Chinese FengYun-3 (FY-3) satellites, the research status of the RO of FY-3 satellites is also presented.

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 3935-3946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Liu ◽  
J. Xue

Abstract. This paper reviews the development of the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) radio occultation (RO) observations assimilation in the Global/Regional Assimilation and PrEdiction System (GRAPES) of China Meteorological Administration, including the choice of data to assimilate, the data quality control, the observation operator, the tuning of observation error, and the results of the observation impact experiments. The results indicate that RO data have a significantly positive effect on analysis and forecast at all ranges in GRAPES, not only in the Southern Hemisphere where conventional observations are lacking but also in the Northern Hemisphere where data are rich. It is noted that a relatively simple assimilation and forecast system in which only the conventional and RO observation are assimilated still has analysis and forecast skill even after nine months integration, and the analysis difference between both hemispheres is gradually reduced with height when compared with NCEP (National Centers for Environmental Prediction) analyses. Finally, as a result of the new on-board payload of the Chinese FengYun-3 (FY-3) satellites, the research status of the RO of FY-3 satellites is also presented.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Lasota ◽  
Andrea K. Steiner ◽  
Gottfried Kirchengast ◽  
Riccardo Biondi

Abstract. Tropical Cyclones (TC) are natural destructive phenomena, which affect wide tropical and subtropical areas every year. Although the correct prediction of their tracks and intensity has improved over recent years, the knowledge about their structure and development is still insufficient. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Radio Occultation (RO) technique can provide a better understanding of the TC because it enables to probe the atmospheric vertical structure with high accuracy, high vertical resolution, and global coverage in any weather conditions. In this work, we create an archive of co-located TC best tracks and RO profiles covering the period 2001–2018 and providing a complete view of the storms since the pre-cyclone status to the cyclone disappearance. We collected 1822 TC best tracks from the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship and co-located them with 48313 RO profiles from seven satellite missions processed by Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change. We provide information about location and intensity of the TC, RO vertical profiles co-located within 3 hours and 500 km from the TC eye centre, and exact information about temporal and spatial distance between the TC centre and the RO mean tangent point. A statistical analysis shows how the archive well covers all the ocean basins and all the intensity categories. We finally demonstrate the application of this dataset to investigate the vertical structure for one TC example case. All the data files, separately for each TC, are publicly available in NetCDF format at https://doi.org/10.25364/WEGC/TC-RO1.0:2020.1 (Lasota et al., 2020).


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 5797-5811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yueqiang Sun ◽  
Weihua Bai ◽  
Congliang Liu ◽  
Yan Liu ◽  
Qifei Du ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Occultation Sounder (GNOS) is one of the new-generation payloads on board the Chinese FengYun 3 (FY-3) series of operational meteorological satellites for sounding the Earth's neutral atmosphere and ionosphere. FY-3C GNOS, on board the FY-3 series C satellite launched in September 2013, was designed to acquire setting and rising radio occultation (RO) data by using GNSS signals from both the Chinese BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) and the US Global Positioning System (GPS). So far, the GNOS measurements and atmospheric and ionospheric data products have been validated and evaluated and then been used for atmosphere- and ionosphere-related scientific applications. This paper reviews the FY-3C GNOS instrument, RO data processing, data quality evaluation, and preliminary research applications according to the state-of-the-art status of the FY-3C GNOS mission and related publications. The reviewed data validation and application results demonstrate that the FY-3C GNOS mission can provide accurate and precise atmospheric and ionospheric GNSS (i.e., GPS and BDS) RO profiles for numerical weather prediction (NWP), global climate monitoring (GCM), and space weather research (SWR). The performance of the FY-3C GNOS product quality evaluation and scientific applications establishes confidence that the GNOS data from the series of FY-3 satellites will provide important contributions to NWP, GCM, and SWR scientific communities.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 9009-9044 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Liao ◽  
P. Zhang ◽  
G. L. Yang ◽  
Y. M. Bi ◽  
Y. Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract. As a new member of space-based radio occultation sounder, the GNOS (Global Navigation Satellite System Occultation Sounder) mounted on FY-3C has been carrying out the atmospheric sounding since 23 September 2013. GNOS takes a daily measurement up to 800 times with GPS (Global Position System) and Chinese BDS (BeiDou navigation satellite) signals. The refractivity profiles from GNOS are compared with the co-located ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) analyses in this paper. Bias and standard deviation have being calculated as the function of altitude. The mean bias is about 0.2 % from the near surface to 35 km. The average standard deviation is within 2 % while it is down to about 1 % in the range 5–30 km where best soundings are usually made. To evaluate the performance of GNOS, COSMIC (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate) and GRAS/METOP-A (GNSS Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding) data are also compared to ECMWF analyses as the reference. The results show that GNOS/FY-3C meets the requirements of the design well. It possesses a sounding capability similar to COSMIC and GRAS in the vertical range of 0–30 km, though it needs improvement in higher altitude. Generally, it provides a new data source for global NWP (numerical weather prediction) community.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1483-1493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weihua Bai ◽  
Guojun Wang ◽  
Yueqiang Sun ◽  
Jiankui Shi ◽  
Guanglin Yang ◽  
...  

Abstract. The rapid advancement of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) occultation technology in recent years has made it one of the most advanced space-based remote sensing technologies of the 21st century. GNSS radio occultation has many advantages, including all-weather operation, global coverage, high vertical resolution, high precision, long-term stability, and self-calibration. Data products from GNSS occultation sounding can greatly enhance ionospheric observations and contribute to space weather monitoring, forecasting, modeling, and research. In this study, GNSS occultation sounder (GNOS) results from a radio occultation sounding payload aboard the Fengyun 3 C (FY3-C) satellite were compared with ground-based ionosonde observations. Correlation coefficients for peak electron density (NmF2) derived from GNOS Global Position System (GPS) and Beidou navigation system (BDS) products with ionosonde data were higher than 0.9, and standard deviations were less than 20 %. Global ionospheric effects of the strong magnetic storm event in March 2015 were analyzed using GNOS results supported by ionosonde observations. The magnetic storm caused a significant disturbance in NmF2 level. Suppressed daytime and nighttime NmF2 levels indicated mainly negative storm conditions. In two longitude section zones of geomagnetic inclination between 40 and 80∘, the results of average NmF2 observed by GNOS and ground-based ionosondes showed the same basic trends during the geomagnetic storm and confirmed the negative effect of this storm event on the ionosphere. The analysis demonstrates the reliability of the GNSS radio occultation sounding instrument GNOS aboard the FY3-C satellite and confirms the utility of ionosphere products from GNOS for statistical and event-specific ionospheric physical analyses. Future FY3 series satellites and increasing numbers of Beidou navigation satellites will provide increasing GNOS occultation data on the ionosphere, which will contribute to ionosphere research and forecasting applications.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 3751-3762 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Feltz ◽  
R. Knuteson ◽  
S. Ackerman ◽  
H. Revercomb

Abstract. Comparisons of satellite temperature profile products from GPS radio occultation (RO) and hyperspectral infrared (IR)/microwave (MW) sounders are made using a previously developed matchup technique. The profile matchup technique matches GPS RO and IR/MW sounder profiles temporally, within 1 h, and spatially, taking into account the unique RO profile geometry and theoretical spatial resolution by calculating a ray-path averaged sounder profile. The comparisons use the GPS RO dry temperature product. Sounder minus GPS RO differences are computed and used to calculate bias and rms profile statistics, which are created for global and 30° latitude zones for selected time periods. These statistics are created from various combinations of temperature profile data from the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere & Climate (COSMIC) network, Global Navigation Satellite System Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding (GRAS) instrument, and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)/Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI)/AMSU, and Crosstrack Infrared Sounder (CrIS)/Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) sounding systems. By overlaying combinations of these matchup statistics for similar time and space domains, comparisons of different sounders' products, sounder product versions, and GPS RO products can be made. The COSMIC GPS RO network has the spatial coverage, time continuity, and stability to provide a common reference for comparison of the sounder profile products. The results of this study demonstrate that GPS RO has potential to act as a common temperature reference and can help facilitate inter-comparison of sounding retrieval methods and also highlight differences among sensor product versions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (16) ◽  
pp. 11697-11708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramon Padullés ◽  
Estel Cardellach ◽  
Kuo-Nung Wang ◽  
Chi O. Ao ◽  
F. Joseph Turk ◽  
...  

Abstract. A positive bias at heights between 3 and 8 km has been observed when comparing the radio-occultation (RO)-retrieved refractivity with that of meteorological analyses and reanalyses in cases where heavy precipitation is present. The effect of precipitation in RO retrievals has been investigated as a potential cause of the bias, using precipitation measurements interpolated into the actual three-dimensional RO ray paths to calculate the excess phase induced by precipitation. The study consisted of comparing the retrievals when such extra delay is removed from the actual measurement and when it is not. The results show how precipitation itself is not the cause of the positive bias. Instead, we show that the positive bias is linked to high specific-humidity conditions regardless of precipitation. This study also shows a regional dependence of the bias. Furthermore, different analyses and reanalyses show a disagreement under high specific-humidity conditions and, in consequence, heavy precipitation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 5075-5094
Author(s):  
M. Feltz ◽  
R. Knuteson ◽  
S. Ackerman ◽  
H. Revercomb

Abstract. Comparisons of satellite temperature profile products from GPS radio occultation (RO) and hyperspectral infrared (IR)/microwave (MW) sounders are made using a previously developed matchup technique. The profile matchup technique matches GPS RO and IR/MW sounder profiles temporally, within 1 h, and spatially, taking into account the unique RO profile geometry and theoretical spatial resolution by calculating a ray-path averaged sounder profile. The comparisons use the GPS RO dry temperature product. Sounder minus GPS RO differences are computed and used to calculate bias and RMS profile statistics, which are created for global and 30° latitude zones for selected time periods. These statistics are created from various combinations of temperature profile data from the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere & Climate (COSMIC) network, Global Navigation Satellite System Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding (GRAS) instrument, and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)/Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI)/AMSU, and Crosstrack Infrared Sounder (CrIS)/Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) sounding systems. By overlaying combinations of these matchup statistics for similar time and space domains, comparisons of different sounders' products, sounder product versions, and GPS RO products can be made. The COSMIC GPS RO network has the spatial coverage, time continuity, and stability to provide a common reference for comparison of the sounder profile products. The results of this study demonstrate that GPS RO has potential to act as a common temperature reference and can help facilitate inter-comparison of sounding retrieval methods and also highlight differences among sensor product versions.


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