Augmentation to Ensure a Successful ATOMMS Demonstration and Evaluation

增强功能以​​确保成功的 ATOMMS 演示和评估

• 批准号: 0946411
• 负责人: Emil Kursinski
• 金额: $ 199.67万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-10-01 至 2013-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0946411&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Augmentation; Ensure; Successful; ATOMMS; Demonstration

This project involves the design, development and integration of a new active limb sounding method modeled after the successful Global Positioning System (GPS) Radio Occultation (RO) sounding technique. The difference is that the new method is not constrained to operate with radio frequency sources specifically allocated for GPS applications. Instead, source frequencies in the microwave are chosen relatively close to atmospheric absorption lines in order to maximize detection of single atmospheric constituents, such as water vapor. Both sender and receiver operate on those frequencies. The operational concept is low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellite platforms flying both transmitter and receiver, each occulting one another. The project is called The Active Temperature, Ozone and Moisture Microwave Spectrometer (ATOMMS). In theory, ATOMMS will profile tropospheric and middle atmosphere water vapor and middle atmosphere ozone to 1-5%, temperature to 0.5K, and geopotential heights to 10-20 m, all with ~200 m vertical resolution, in both clear and cloudy air. This performance will improve significantly with averaging. ATOMMS is self-calibrating, which eliminates long-term drift. The success of this project is a necessary step toward space-based LEO ATOMMS measurements. The Principal Investigator (PI) is modifying his earlier ATOMMS design by increasing the number of high band tones from 2 to 4, upgrading the instrument electronics and making commensurate changes in the retrieval system. These upgrades will provide the information needed to isolate, quantify and mitigate several recently recognized key sources of error. With 4 high band tones, the PI will be able to investigate and hopefully explain any discrepancies and surprises that are to be expected in a first time measurement demonstration such as this. Specifically, the 4 high band tones will provide the information to (i) isolate and reduce amplitude scintillations due to turbulent fluctuations in the imaginary and real refractivity, (ii) quantify and reduce residual biases left after incomplete removal of ice cloud scattering using only two tones, and (iii) quantify errors in spectroscopy that are otherwise likely to limit the accuracy of ATOMMS-derived profiles. In addition, 4 high band tones will increase the likelihood of acquiring useful measurements even if a tone were to fail during a flight and allow the PI to demonstrate profiling N2O and H3NO and the 18O/16O isotopic ratio of water vapor. Without the information from four channels of high band data in the aircraft to aircraft demonstrations the PI would be unable to quantify several critical errors leaving the assessment of ATOMMS incomplete and its ultimate performance uncertain. ATOMMS observations will fulfill crucial needs for atmospheric, climate and geospace scientists, by providing new sources of global, high vertical resolution, highly stable and accurate data important to their research. The observations will serve mission agencies in weather and chemical weather forecasting and would be a key element in the international Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). In regard to education and training, several junior scientists, including the co-PI, will help to conduct this research.

该项目涉及仿照成功的全球定位系统无线电掩星探测技术设计、开发和集成一种新的主动临边探测方法。 不同之处在于，新方法不限于与专门为GPS应用分配的射频源一起操作。相反，微波中的源频率被选择为相对接近大气吸收线，以便最大限度地检测单一大气成分，例如水蒸气。发送器和接收器都在这些频率上工作。 操作概念是低地球轨道（LEO）卫星平台飞行发射器和接收器，每个互相掩盖。 该项目被称为主动温度，臭氧和湿度微波光谱仪（ATOMMS）。 从理论上讲，ATOMMS将对流层和中层大气水蒸气和中层大气臭氧的剖面图绘制到1- 5%，温度为0.5K，位势高度为10-20米，在晴朗和多云的空气中，所有这些都具有约200米的垂直分辨率。通过取平均值，这种性能将显着提高。 ATOMMS具有自校准功能，可消除长期漂移。 这一项目的成功是实现天基低地球轨道原子测量的必要步骤。首席研究员（PI）正在修改他早期的ATOMMS设计，将高频段音调的数量从2个增加到4个，升级仪器电子设备，并对检索系统进行相应的更改。这些升级将提供必要的信息，以隔离、量化和减轻最近确认的几个主要误差来源。有了4个高频段音调，PI将能够调查并希望解释在第一次测量演示中预期的任何差异和惊喜。具体地说，4个高频带音调将提供信息，以（i）隔离和减少由于虚的和真实的的湍流活动中的湍流波动引起的振幅振荡，（ii）量化和减少仅使用两个音调不完全去除冰云散射后留下的残余偏差，以及（iii）量化光谱学中的误差，否则这些误差可能限制ATOMMS导出的轮廓的准确性。此外，即使在飞行过程中出现音调故障，4个高频段音调也将增加获得有用测量的可能性，并允许PI演示分析N2 O和H3 NO以及水蒸气的18 O/16 O同位素比。如果没有从飞机上的四个高波段数据通道到飞机演示的信息，PI将无法量化几个关键误差，从而使ATOMMS的评估不完整，其最终性能也不确定。ATOMMS观测将满足大气、气候和地球空间科学家的关键需求，提供对他们的研究至关重要的全球、高垂直分辨率、高度稳定和准确数据的新来源。 这些观测将为使命机构提供天气和化学天气预报服务，并将成为国际全球气候观测系统的一个关键要素。 在教育和培训方面，包括共同主要研究者在内的几名年轻科学家将帮助开展这项研究。