Advances in Atmospheric Science Using Radio Occultation* Observations (*Still the world’s most accurate and precise thermometer from space!)
Presenter:
Richard A. Anthes
UCAR
Keynote
As we near the 25th anniversary of the launch of GPS/MET on 1 April 1995, radio occultation (RO) has emerged from an obscure corner of atmospheric sciences with a few visionaries realizing its potential value, to a mainstream observational technique that is contributing to the study and prediction of many diverse atmospheric phenomena. According to the Web of Science, prior to the launch of GPS/MET in 1995 there were approximately 100 publications with the criteria [radio occultation AND (weather OR climate OR ionosphere)]. From 1995-June 2019, the number of publications with these same criteria jumped to over 1,300). Thus RO observations have proven their value to atmospheric sciences, ranging from space weather to climate and weather phenomena and numerical weather prediction (NWP).
In this talk I update my 2011 review article in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques by highlighting some recent advances in atmospheric sciences using RO observations. Radio occultation observations have been used by scientists around the world to study ionospheric features and variability, atmospheric waves of many types (e.g. gravity, MJO, Kelvin, ENSO) in the troposphere and stratosphere, Upper Troposphere-Lower Stratosphere (UTLS) structure, atmospheric fronts and rivers, tropical cyclones, convective systems, and boundary layers. With its high accuracy and precision and high vertical resolution through the middle troposphere to the middle stratosphere, RO has shown the capability to calibrate infrared and microwave sounders and to identify biases in different types of radiosondes. These characteristics make RO observations a “climate reference” and an “anchor” in NWP forecasts and reanalysis, reducing model biases and preventing climate drift.
Many examples I present are taken from soon-to-be-published reviews by Ho et al. (2019) and Bonafoni et al. (2019). To limit the scope of the talk, I will focus on weather, climate, and NWP, leaving the important field of space weather, to which RO has contributed enormously, to others.
References
Ho, Shu-Peng, Richard A. Anthes, Chi O. Ao, Sean Healy, Andras Horanyi, Douglas Hunt, Anthony J. Mannucci, Nicholas Pedatella, William J. Randel, Adrian Simmons, Andrea Steiner, Feiqin Xie, Xinan Yue, Zhen Zeng, 2019: The COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3 Radio Occultation Mission after 12 years: Accomplishments, Remaining Challenges, and Potential Impact of COSMIC-2. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., (in review).
Bonafoni, S., R. Biondi, H. Brenot and R. Anthes, 2019: Radio Occultation and Ground-based GNSS Products for Observing, Understanding and Predicting Extreme Events: a Review. Atmos. Res. Review, (submitted).
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