Using the Commercial GNSS RO Spire Data in the Neutral Atmosphere for Climate and Weather Prediction Studies
Recently, the NOAA has included GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Radio Occultation (RO) data as one of the crucial long-term observables for weather and climate applications. To include more GNSS RO data in its numerical weather prediction systems, the NOAA Commercial Weather Data Pilot pro...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-10-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/19/4836 |
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| author | Shu-peng Ho Xinjia Zhou Xi Shao Yong Chen Xin Jing William Miller |
| author_facet | Shu-peng Ho Xinjia Zhou Xi Shao Yong Chen Xin Jing William Miller |
| author_sort | Shu-peng Ho |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Recently, the NOAA has included GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Radio Occultation (RO) data as one of the crucial long-term observables for weather and climate applications. To include more GNSS RO data in its numerical weather prediction systems, the NOAA Commercial Weather Data Pilot program (CWDP) started to explore the commercial RO data available on the market. After two rounds of pilot studies, the CWDP decided to award the first Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to GeoOptics and Spire Incs. in 2020. This study examines the quality of Spire RO data products for weather and climate applications. Spire RO data collected from commercial CubeSats are carefully compared with data from Formosa Satellite Mission 7–Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate-2 (COSMIC-2), the fifth-generation European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) atmospheric reanalysis (ERA5), and high-quality radiosonde data. The results demonstrate that, despite their generally lower Signal-Noise-Ratio (SNR), Spire RO data show a pattern of lowest penetration height similar to that of COSMIC-2. The Spire and COSMIC-2 penetration heights are between 0.6 and 0.8 km altitude over tropical oceans. Although using different GNSS RO receivers, the precision of Spire STRATOS receivers is of the same quality as those of the COSMIC-2 TriG (Global Positioning System—GPS, GALILEO, and GLObal NAvigation Satellite System—GLONASS) RO Receiver System (TGRS) receivers. Furthermore, the Spire and COSMIC-2 retrieval accuracies are quite comparable. We validate the Spire temperature and water vapor profiles by comparing them with collocated radiosonde observation (RAOB) data. Generally, over the height region between 8 km and 16.5 km, the Spire temperature profiles match those from RS41 RAOB very well, with temperature biases of <0.02 K. Over the height range from 17.8 to 26.4 km, the temperature differences are ~−0.034 K, with RS41 RAOB being warmer. We also estimate the error covariance matrix for Spire, COSMIC-2, and KOMPSAT-5. The results show that the COSMIC-2 estimated error covariance values are slightly more significant than those from Spire over the oceans at the mid-latitudes (45°N–30°N and 30°S–45°S), which may be owing to COSMIC-2 SNR being relatively lower at those latitudinal zones. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T21:35:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2abef1b626674e068e1e49d9fecdb4c1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T21:35:27Z |
| publishDate | 2023-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj.art-2abef1b626674e068e1e49d9fecdb4c12023-11-19T15:00:38ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922023-10-011519483610.3390/rs15194836Using the Commercial GNSS RO Spire Data in the Neutral Atmosphere for Climate and Weather Prediction StudiesShu-peng Ho0Xinjia Zhou1Xi Shao2Yong Chen3Xin Jing4William Miller5NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, Center for Satellite Applications and Research, College Park, MD 20740, USAGlobal Science & Technology, Inc., 7855 Walker Drive, Suite 200, Greenbelt, MD 20770, USACooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS), Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USANOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, Center for Satellite Applications and Research, College Park, MD 20740, USACooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS), Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USACooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS), Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USARecently, the NOAA has included GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Radio Occultation (RO) data as one of the crucial long-term observables for weather and climate applications. To include more GNSS RO data in its numerical weather prediction systems, the NOAA Commercial Weather Data Pilot program (CWDP) started to explore the commercial RO data available on the market. After two rounds of pilot studies, the CWDP decided to award the first Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to GeoOptics and Spire Incs. in 2020. This study examines the quality of Spire RO data products for weather and climate applications. Spire RO data collected from commercial CubeSats are carefully compared with data from Formosa Satellite Mission 7–Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate-2 (COSMIC-2), the fifth-generation European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) atmospheric reanalysis (ERA5), and high-quality radiosonde data. The results demonstrate that, despite their generally lower Signal-Noise-Ratio (SNR), Spire RO data show a pattern of lowest penetration height similar to that of COSMIC-2. The Spire and COSMIC-2 penetration heights are between 0.6 and 0.8 km altitude over tropical oceans. Although using different GNSS RO receivers, the precision of Spire STRATOS receivers is of the same quality as those of the COSMIC-2 TriG (Global Positioning System—GPS, GALILEO, and GLObal NAvigation Satellite System—GLONASS) RO Receiver System (TGRS) receivers. Furthermore, the Spire and COSMIC-2 retrieval accuracies are quite comparable. We validate the Spire temperature and water vapor profiles by comparing them with collocated radiosonde observation (RAOB) data. Generally, over the height region between 8 km and 16.5 km, the Spire temperature profiles match those from RS41 RAOB very well, with temperature biases of <0.02 K. Over the height range from 17.8 to 26.4 km, the temperature differences are ~−0.034 K, with RS41 RAOB being warmer. We also estimate the error covariance matrix for Spire, COSMIC-2, and KOMPSAT-5. The results show that the COSMIC-2 estimated error covariance values are slightly more significant than those from Spire over the oceans at the mid-latitudes (45°N–30°N and 30°S–45°S), which may be owing to COSMIC-2 SNR being relatively lower at those latitudinal zones.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/19/4836Global Navigation Satellite SystemRadio OccultationCOSMIC-2water vapor profilesclimatenumerical weather prediction |
| spellingShingle | Shu-peng Ho Xinjia Zhou Xi Shao Yong Chen Xin Jing William Miller Using the Commercial GNSS RO Spire Data in the Neutral Atmosphere for Climate and Weather Prediction Studies Remote Sensing Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation COSMIC-2 water vapor profiles climate numerical weather prediction |
| title | Using the Commercial GNSS RO Spire Data in the Neutral Atmosphere for Climate and Weather Prediction Studies |
| title_full | Using the Commercial GNSS RO Spire Data in the Neutral Atmosphere for Climate and Weather Prediction Studies |
| title_fullStr | Using the Commercial GNSS RO Spire Data in the Neutral Atmosphere for Climate and Weather Prediction Studies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Using the Commercial GNSS RO Spire Data in the Neutral Atmosphere for Climate and Weather Prediction Studies |
| title_short | Using the Commercial GNSS RO Spire Data in the Neutral Atmosphere for Climate and Weather Prediction Studies |
| title_sort | using the commercial gnss ro spire data in the neutral atmosphere for climate and weather prediction studies |
| topic | Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation COSMIC-2 water vapor profiles climate numerical weather prediction |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/19/4836 |
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