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Latest Status Update - June 27, 2008
All six satellites are operating. The daily occultation count ranges from 1600-2200 good
neutral atmospheric profiles. FM6 has good SNRs for both high gain antennas,
an improvement since the April 2008 update, which is believed to be caused by lower
antenna temperatures. The daily occultation count remains limited by the problems described previously:
FM2 has only one working solar panel, FM3 has a stuck solar array drive - both of these conditions require to turn the payloads
off at times, depending on the solar angle. One of the POD navigation antennas on FM5 still has low L2 SNR so that this satellite
has to be operated with only a single POD antenna. While the daily count for the mission remains lower
than anticipated individual well functioning satellites like FM4 can generate over 500 high-quality soundings on good days.
After uploading a new version of JPL-modified firmware the COSMIC mission has collected the first profiles
tracking the new GPS L2C signal. The data are still undergoing testing but initial results indicate significantly
improved penetration into the lower troposphere when tracking the L2 phase. Open loop tracking of L2C is also performed but CDAAC software is
still being modified to process those data.
The new NOAA-supported ground stations in Fairbanks, AK, and Tromsoe Norway,
are performing well. After some initial-startup problems reliability is now as good as it has been
before we switched ground stations. An additional ground station in McMurdo, Antartica, is now
being prepared for support of 6 COSMIC passes per day. This ground station is owned by NSF and operated by NASA and it is expected
to reduce the latency of some COSMIC products.
Posted by Chris Rocken, Bill Schreiner, and the CDAAC Team.
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