ESTIMATION AND EVALUATION OF ELECTRON DENSITY PROFILES FROM GNSS RADIO OCULTATION

• Grant number: 22/12339-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2022
• End date: December 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geodesy
• Principal Investigator: Daniele Barroca Marra Alves
• Grantee: Letícia Nunes de Campos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Presidente Prudente. Presidente Prudente , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/15681-5 - Investigation of Methods for Validating Ionospheric Products Using Ionosonde Data, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

Radio occultation (RO) has been used with stars and space probes for the investigation of other planets' atmospheres over the last six decades. The development of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) and LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites enabled the used of RO for exploration and investigation of the Earth's atmosphere. RO considers that the signals transmitted by GNSS satellites carry information about the atmosphere as they pass through it. The interaction that occurs during signal propagation allows the estimation of refractive indices of the atmosphere, and thus it is possible to obtain atmospheric profiles, such as electron density of the ionosphere. Since the first RO mission, launched in 1995, several missions have been launched, one of the main ones is the COSMIC (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate) mission, whose data are processed and made available by CDAAC (COSMIC Data Analysis and Archive Center). In general, the processing settings used for the RO profiles processing are the same regardless of the region of occurrence of the occultation. In this context, this project aims to contribute to the investigation of the impact of processing configurations on the estimation of ionospheric profiles of the COSMIC mission, considering the Brazilian region. The quality of the mission products will be evaluated, taking into account both the profiles made available by the center and those reprocessed with the execution of this project.