BackBack to listForwardRadio occultation sounding 

Details on this mission type
Full name Radio occultation sounding
Definition This type of mission designates receivers of signals from navigation systems (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou) embarked on LEO satellites, operating during the occultation phase. The radio-occultation measurements are used for atmospheric temperature and humidity sounding, and/or for ionospheric sounding.
Relevant instruments and their contribution

The sorting column describes how the instruments, by design, have the potential to contribute to certain pre-determined capabilities, assuming nominal operation of space and ground segments. For this particular capability, instrument performance is considered to be driven by:

  • the number of occultations per day, determined by:
    • how many GNSS systems are exploited (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou)
    • whether occultations are exploited with the GNSS satellite rising and/or setting (viewing fore- and/or aft-);
    • whether the instrument is launched and operated as a constellation or an individual system ;
  • the capability to scan the ionosphere (this requires GNSS signal sampling for altitudes above 100 km.

 Sorting criteria and colour code:

  1. Receivers flown on dedicated satellite clusters to track >=3 GNSS systems by 2 directional antennas for both fore- and aft- occultations.  Altitude scanned up to the ionosphere OR not.
  2. Receivers flown on dedicated satellite clusters to track >=1 GNSS systems by 2 directional antennas for both fore- and aft- occultations.  Altitude scanned up to the ionosphere OR not.
  3. Receiver hosted on single satellites, to track >=3 OR >=2 GNSS systems by 2 directional antennas for both fore- and aft- occultations.  Altitude scanned up to the ionosphere OR not.
  4. Receiver hosted on single satellites to track 1 GNSS system by 2 directional antennas for both fore- and aft- occultations.  Altitude scanned up to the ionosphere OR not.
  5. Receiver hosted on single satellites to track 1 GNSS system by 1 directional antenna for either fore- or aft- occultation. OR receiver equipped by only the omni-directional antenna.  Altitude scanned up to the ionosphere OR not.