Citation
Abstract
The use of constellations involving closely spaced low–Earth orbiting (LEO) satellites provides advantages allowing for improvement in understanding basic cloud convective processes. One can achieve several advantages by collecting successive radio occultation measurements using such a constellation of closely spaced LEO satellites that receive transmissions from global navigation satellite system (GNSS) constellations. These observations can be complemented with concurrent microwave radiometry measurements. We assess the relative performance of employing different satellite constellations in acquiring such measurements, with the aim of maximizing coverage over longitude and latitude and over short data-acquisition periods. Considerations for orbit strategies include the number of satellites, the spacing of the satellites, and the number of strings or orbital planes. We performed simulations involving different constellations (orbit strategies) to assess opportunities where radio occultation events lie within a given threshold relative to nadir-pointed microwave radiometry measurements. We also considered the number of participating GNSS constellations, such as Global Positioning System (GPS), Galileo, and Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), as well as the number of days for analysis over which the observations were acquired.
Details
- Volume
- 42-226
- Published
- August 15, 2021
- Pages
- 1–21
- File Size
- 7.1 MB