Support for the Participation of U.S. Scientists and Students in the International Conference on Global Positioning System (GPS) Radio Occultation; Taipei, Taiwan; March 9-11, 2016

该奖项资助美国科学家参加在台湾台北举行的第三届国际GPS无线电掩星会议（ICGPSRO）。​这一伙伴关系通过大学大气研究公司进行，并有其他美国机构参与，产生了星座气象、电离层和气候观测系统（COSMIC）。COSMIC是2006年发射的带有GPS接收器的六颗极轨道卫星星座。COSMIC任务已经非常成功，并且后续COSMIC-2任务作为一个美国-台湾联合项目正在发展中，预定在2016年进行两次发射中的第一次。虽然COSMIC-2不是nsf资助的任务，但收集的观测结果将比现有的GPSRO测量结果的质量和数量都要高，并有望成为nsf资助的研究人员的重要资源。会议涵盖了许多与RO测量技术以及GPSRO数据在天气、气候和空间天气研究中的应用相关的主题。会议将提供一个场所，让美国与会者了解GPSRO技术及其研究应用，促进数据最终用户与观测技术开发商之间的互动，并促进美国和台湾科学家之间的国际合作。通过该奖项提供的资金将支持最多10名美国科学家和学生参加会议。美国的参与者将包括学生、早期职业科学家和高级研究人员。由于GPSRO观测作为天气预报输入和跟踪电离层状态的实用价值，该奖项具有更广泛的影响。例如，GPSRO数据已被证明可以有效地减少飓风路径预报的误差。此外，这些观测数据是经过绝对校准的，因此对探测大气温度的长期趋势很有用，也可以用来帮助校准其他类型的气象卫星。除了这些更广泛的社会影响之外，会议还将为学生和早期职业科学家提供有价值的教育和指导。

This award funds the travel of US scientists to attend the Third International Conference on GPS Radio Occultation (ICGPSRO) in Taipei, Taiwan. NSF has a longstanding partnership with the Taiwanese National Space Organization (NSPO), in the development of space-based GPS radio occultation (GPSRO) as a technique for observing the atmosphere. This partnership, conducted through the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and with the participation of other US agencies, produced the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, the Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC). COSMIC is a six-satellite constellation of polar orbiting satellites with GPS receivers launched in 2006. The COSMIC mission has been highly successful, and the follow-on COSMIC-2 mission is under development as a joint US-Taiwan project with the first of two launches scheduled for 2016. While COSMIC-2 is not an NSF-funded mission, the observations to be collected will be of greater quality and quantity than existing GPSRO measurements and hold substantial promise as a resource for NSF-funded researchers.The conference covers a number of topics related to RO measurement techniques and the use of GPSRO data for weather, climate, and space weather research. The meeting will provide a venue to expose US participants to the GPSRO technique and its research applications, to foster interactions between end users of the data and developers of the observing technology, and to promote international collaborations between US and Taiwanese scientists. Funds provided through this award will support the travel of up to ten U.S. scientists and students to attend the conference. US participants will be a mix of students, early career scientists, and senior researchers.The award has broader impacts due to the practical value of GPSRO observations as an input to weather forecasts and for tracking the state of the ionosphere. GPSRO data has been demonstrated, for example, to be effective at reducing errors in forecasts of hurricane tracks. In addition, the observations are absolutely calibrated and thus useful for detecting long-term trends in atmospheric temperature, and can be used to help calibrate other kinds of weather satellites. Beyond these societal broader impacts, the meeting will provide valuable education and mentorship for students and early career scientists.