Rotational Transformation Methods for Radio Occultation and Passive Microwave Radiometry Colocation Analysis

Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation (GNSS-RO) and passive microwave radiometry (MWR) provide useful atmospheric profiles for inputs into Numerical Weather Prediction models. However, both remote sensing techniques face unique challenges that require auxiliary atmospheric data to mit...

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Main Author: Halperin, Lucy
Other Authors: Cahoy, Kerri
Format: Thesis
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2022
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/139442
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author Halperin, Lucy
author2 Cahoy, Kerri
author_facet Cahoy, Kerri
Halperin, Lucy
author_sort Halperin, Lucy
collection MIT
description Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation (GNSS-RO) and passive microwave radiometry (MWR) provide useful atmospheric profiles for inputs into Numerical Weather Prediction models. However, both remote sensing techniques face unique challenges that require auxiliary atmospheric data to mitigate. GNSS-RO provides extremely high vertical resolution retrievals in the Marine Boundary Layer but by itself is unable to distinguish between the contributions of water vapor and the “dry” atmosphere. MWR instruments have inherent biases in antenna temperature. GNSS-RO and MWR measurements taken within the same atmospheric volume at approximately the same time are mutually beneficial: each sensing technique provides the constraints needed by the other to solve its aforementioned profiling issue. This work introduces a fast, approximate method for analyzing the presence of colocated GNSS-RO/MWR measurements that requires only Two-Line Element (TLE) MWR data. The method applies a rotational transformation to map GNSS-RO soundings into the coordinate system natural to a cross-track scanning MWR satellite. The rotational transformation method is compared to the typical “brute force” colocation determination method and found to compute colocations 20x faster, with an average accuracy within 1.5% of “brute force” colocated occultations. Two initial applications of the rotational transformation colocation determination method are explored: a comprehensive study of the colocations occurring among active GNSS-RO and MWR missions, and colocation analysis of a proposed MWR constellation aimed to maximize colocations with the COSMIC-2 constellation.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1394422022-01-15T04:02:03Z Rotational Transformation Methods for Radio Occultation and Passive Microwave Radiometry Colocation Analysis Halperin, Lucy Cahoy, Kerri Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation (GNSS-RO) and passive microwave radiometry (MWR) provide useful atmospheric profiles for inputs into Numerical Weather Prediction models. However, both remote sensing techniques face unique challenges that require auxiliary atmospheric data to mitigate. GNSS-RO provides extremely high vertical resolution retrievals in the Marine Boundary Layer but by itself is unable to distinguish between the contributions of water vapor and the “dry” atmosphere. MWR instruments have inherent biases in antenna temperature. GNSS-RO and MWR measurements taken within the same atmospheric volume at approximately the same time are mutually beneficial: each sensing technique provides the constraints needed by the other to solve its aforementioned profiling issue. This work introduces a fast, approximate method for analyzing the presence of colocated GNSS-RO/MWR measurements that requires only Two-Line Element (TLE) MWR data. The method applies a rotational transformation to map GNSS-RO soundings into the coordinate system natural to a cross-track scanning MWR satellite. The rotational transformation method is compared to the typical “brute force” colocation determination method and found to compute colocations 20x faster, with an average accuracy within 1.5% of “brute force” colocated occultations. Two initial applications of the rotational transformation colocation determination method are explored: a comprehensive study of the colocations occurring among active GNSS-RO and MWR missions, and colocation analysis of a proposed MWR constellation aimed to maximize colocations with the COSMIC-2 constellation. S.M. 2022-01-14T15:11:43Z 2022-01-14T15:11:43Z 2021-06 2021-06-16T13:26:31.645Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/139442 In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright MIT http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Halperin, Lucy
Rotational Transformation Methods for Radio Occultation and Passive Microwave Radiometry Colocation Analysis
title Rotational Transformation Methods for Radio Occultation and Passive Microwave Radiometry Colocation Analysis
title_full Rotational Transformation Methods for Radio Occultation and Passive Microwave Radiometry Colocation Analysis
title_fullStr Rotational Transformation Methods for Radio Occultation and Passive Microwave Radiometry Colocation Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Rotational Transformation Methods for Radio Occultation and Passive Microwave Radiometry Colocation Analysis
title_short Rotational Transformation Methods for Radio Occultation and Passive Microwave Radiometry Colocation Analysis
title_sort rotational transformation methods for radio occultation and passive microwave radiometry colocation analysis
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/139442
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