BackForwardInstrument:  CORISS 

Instrument details
Acronym CORISS
Full name C/NOFS Occultation Receiver for Ionospheric Sensing and Specification
Purpose Measurement of line-of-sight TEC and scintillations, and stratospheric temperature.
Short description Dual-frequency receiver to track GPS satellites during the rising and setting phases.
Background Consolidated technology.
Scanning Technique Limb observation of GPS signals during occultation by the omnidirectional antenna
Resolution About 300 km horizontal, 0.5 km vertical
Coverage / Cycle 1 GNSS constellation tracked. About 200 soundings/day - Average spacing 1600 km - Global coverage (300 km spacing) in 28 days
Mass 3 kg Power 10 W Data Rate 0.5 kbps

 

Providing Agency NASA
Instrument Maturity Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period: 2008 to 2015
Last update: 2022-07-25
Detailed characteristics
Satellites this instrument is flying on

Note: a red tag indicates satellites no longer operational, a green tag indicates operational satellites, a blue tag indicates future satellites

Instrument classification
  • Earth observation instrument
  • Active and radio-occultation sensor
  • GNSS radio-occultation
WIGOS Subcomponents
  • Subcomponent 1
  • GNSS radio occultation (basic constellation)
  • GNSS radio occultation sounder (basic constellation)
Mission objectives
Primary mission objectives
  • Electron Density
  • Ionospheric Scintillation
  • Ionospheric Total Electron Content (TEC)
Evaluation of Measurements

The following list indicates which measurements can typically be retrieved from this category of instrument. To see a full Gap Analysis by Variable, click on the respective variable.

Note: table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers
Note: * Primary mission objective.
VariableRelevance for measuring this variableOperational limitationsExplanation
Atmospheric temperature4 - fairInaccurate in low troposphere.Omni-directional antenna, one GNSS system tracked, covering about 200 soundings/day,
Geoid4 - fairHighly indirect.Radio-occultation processing implies precise orbitography. Geoid derived from multi-temporal analysis
Gravity field5 - marginalHighly indirect.Radio-occultation processing implies precise orbitography. Gravity field derived from multi-temporal analysis
Height of the tropopause4 - fairNo specific limitation.Omni-directional antenna, one GNSS system tracked, about 200 soundings/day. Tropopause height measured as discontinuity of the refraction index
Temperature of the tropopause4 - fairNo specific limitation.Omni-directional antenna, one GNSS system tracked, about 200 soundings/day. Tropopause height measured as discontinuity of the refraction index
Atmospheric density1 - primaryNo specific limitation.Measuring atmospheric density
Electron Density*1 - primaryPartial information (geoid).. No specific limitation.Omni-directional antenna, one GNSS system tracked, about 200 soundings/day,
Ionospheric Total Electron Content (TEC)*4 - fairNo specific limitation.Omni-directional antenna, one GNSS system tracked, about 200 soundings/day,
Ionospheric Scintillation*5 - marginalNo specific limitation.Omni-directional antenna, one GNSS system tracked, about 200 soundings/day,