Hybrid satellite constellations for high-resolution atmospheric modeling and sounding (HOLMES)

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Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) can not only be used for positioning and navigation, but also for observing the temperature and water vapor in the atmosphere, the ionospheric electron content, precise point coordinates, and coseismic deformations. A geophysical key application is atmospheric parameter inversion for the prediction and monitoring of weather events. Since currently most operational atmospheric products are still based on GPS only observation data, their spatiotemporal resolution is very limited. Including new GNSS, such as the European Galileo and the Chinese BeiDou as well as the development of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations with ranging links to satellites in higher orbits and potentially also to the ground opens promising perspectives for geoscience applications. The complementary orbit properties of conventional Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) navigation satellites, Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites, Inclined Geo-Synchronous Orbit (IGSO) satellites, and LEO satellites with their rapidly changing observation geometry are expected to significantly enhance the estimation of tropospheric and ionospheric parameters, so that a more detailed description of the vertical and horizontal properties of the atmosphere can be derived. The proposed project will focus on formulating an integrated MEO/GEO/IGSO/LEO processing model for atmospheric parameter estimation and the derivation of high precision and high resolution atmospheric products. The following key aspects will be addressed in this project: • A mathematical model for integrated GPS, BeiDou, Galileo, and LEO data processing will be developed, which will form the basis for the subsequent estimation and analysis of atmospheric parameters. • Methods for the rapid inversion of high-resolution tropospheric zenith delays and horizontal gradients using the above integrated processing model will be implemented and their capabilities will be studied. • Concepts for the augmentation of GNSS ionospheric sensing and modeling with LEO satellites will be developed and the benefit for monitoring small-scale space weather events will be investigated.