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The COSMIC-2 mission is a follow-on mission of the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) with an upgraded payload for improved radio occultation (RO) applications. The objective of this paper is to develop a near-real-time (NRT) orbit determination system, called NRT National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) system, to support COSMIC-2 in atmospheric applications and verify the orbit product of COSMIC. The system is capable of automatic determinations of the NRT GPS clocks and LEO orbit and clock. To assess the NRT (NCTU) system, we use eight days of COSMIC data (March 24-31, 2011), which contain a total of 331 GPS observation sessions and 12 393 RO observable files. The parallel scheduling for independent GPS and LEO estimations and automatic time matching improves the computational efficiency by 64% compared to the sequential scheduling. Orbit difference analyses suggest a 10-cm accuracy for the COSMIC orbits from the NRT (NCTU) system, and it is consistent as the NRT University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (URCA) system. The mean velocity accuracy from the NRT orbits of COSMIC is 0.168 mm/s, corresponding to an error of about 0.051 μrad in the bending angle. The rms differences in the NRT COSMIC clock and in GPS clocks between the NRT (NCTU) and the postprocessing products are 3.742 and 1.427 ns. The GPS clocks determined from a partial ground GPS network [from NRT (NCTU)] and a full one [from NRT (UCAR)] result in mean rms frequency stabilities of 6.1E-12 and 2.7E-12, respectively, corresponding to range fluctuations of 5.5 and 2.4 cm and bending angle errors of 3.75 and 1.66 μrad . [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The FORMOSAT-3 mission, also known as Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC), is the third major project of the Formosa Satellite (FORMOSAT) series implemented by the National Space Organization of Taiwan. FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC is a joint Taiwan/U.S. mission consisting of six identical low Earth orbit satellites. All six cluster satellites were successfully launched by a single Minotaur launch vehicle on April 15, 2006. The retrieved global positioning system (GPS) radio occultation (RO) data have been freely available online to the science community since shortly after the completion of satellite bus in-orbit checkout. Having completed the verification and validation, the worldwide science communities are highly satisfied with the RO data. Scientists have hailed the RO sensors as offering the most accurate, precise, and stable thermometers in space. After one year in orbit, all six FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites were in good condition (except FM2, which had power shortage issues) and were on their way toward the final constellation of six separate orbit planes with 30° separation. Four out of six satellites had already reached their final mission orbit of 800 km by mid-May 2007. Together, the six satellites have generated a total of more than 2500 RO data per day. However, only 50%-70% of the RO data as received one year after launch could be retrieved into useful atmosphere profiles. The retrieved RO data, about 1800 per day on average, have been assimilated into numerical weather prediction models by many major weather forecast centers and research institutes. This paper provides an overview of the constellation mission, the spacecraft system performance after one year in orbit, the technical challenges we have encountered, and the performance enhancements we have accomplished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radio-occultation (RO) technique, which has been used in planetary science, is a method to obtain the profiles of atmosphere and the global atmospheric data. In 2006, Taiwan launched six low-Earth-orbit satellites as a RO constellation mission, known as FORMOSAT-3. In order to thoroughly understand the process of the RO data retrieval and obtain as much as possible the information for the weather prediction, a National Central University Radio Occultation (NCURO) retrieval algorithm has been developed. The focus of the algorithm development is on the correction of the excess phase of the signal received with open-loop (OL) technique and the criteria for assessment of the data quality. When the OL is activated, the excess phase of the global-positioning-system (GPS) signal is modulated with navigation messages of satellites. In our algorithms, two methods are incorporated to recover the excess phase. Moreover, as the altitude of the received signal decreases, the quality of the GPS signal generally deteriorates, and eventually, the signal is too noisy to be processed. In order to assess the quality of the signal, instead of the signal-to-noise ratio, the degree of unclearness is defined and used in the algorithm. In this paper, the algorithm including the phase-correction methods and the criteria for the quality assessment will be described. The data retrieval using the algorithm will be compared with those obtained from the COSMIC Data Analysis and Archive Center at the University Corporation for Atmosphere Research and Pingtung radiosonde measurement. Some intermediate results of the NCURO algorithm will also be demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]