WMO OSCAR | Details for Instrument ROSA

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Instrument: ROSA

Instrument details

Acronym	ROSA
Full name	Radio Occultation Sounder of the Atmosphere
Purpose	Temperature/humidity sounding with highest vertical resolution, space weather
Short description	Measuring the phase delay due to refraction during occultation between GPS and LEO
Background	Consolidated technology
Scanning Technique	Limb scanning from the satellite altitude to close-to-surface by time sampling - Azimuth: 90° sectors fore- and aft-
Resolution	About 300 km horizontal, 0.5 km vertical
Coverage / Cycle	1 GNSS constellation tracked. About 650 soundings/day - Average spacing 880 km - Global coverage (300 km spacing) in 8.5 days
Mass	17 kg	Power	38 W	Data Rate	25 kbps

Providing Agency	ASI
Instrument Maturity	Flown on an R&D satellite
Utilization Period:	2011 to 2019
Last update:	2021-06-17

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

Megha-Tropiques (ISRO)
- Megha-Tropiques (see instrument status) Jan 2012 - Apr 2019
Satélite de Aplicaciones Cientificas (CONAE)
- SAC-D (see instrument status) Aug 2011 - Jun 2015

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)
Subcomponent 2
Magnetospheric energetic particles and magnetometers
Ionospheric total electron content sensor [at LEO and cross magnetosphere]
Ionospheric electron density sensor [in LEO and cross magnetosphere]

Mission objectives

Primary mission objectives

Atmospheric temperature
Height of the top of PBL
Height of the tropopause
Specific humidity
Temperature of the tropopause

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.

Search:

Variable	Relevance for measuring this variable	Operational limitations	Explanation
Atmospheric density	1 - primary	No specific limitation.	Measuring atmospheric density
Electron Density	1 - primary	No specific limitation.	Two directional antennas, one GNSS system tracked, about 500 soundings/day
Atmospheric temperature*	3 - high	Inaccurate in low troposphere.	Two directional antennas, one GNSS system tracked, covering about 500 soundings/day
Height of the top of PBL*	3 - high	No specific limitation.	Two directional antennas, one GNSS system tracked, about 500 soundings/day. PBL top measured as discontinuity of the refraction index
Height of the tropopause*	3 - high	No specific limitation.	Two directional antennas, one GNSS system tracked, about 500 soundings/day. Tropopause height measured as discontinuity of the refraction index
Specific humidity*	3 - high	Inaccurate in high troposphere.	Two directional antennas, one GNSS system tracked, about 500 soundings/day
Temperature of the tropopause*	3 - high	No specific limitation.	Two directional antennas, one GNSS system tracked, about 500 soundings/day
Ionospheric Total Electron Content (TEC)	3 - high	No specific limitation.	Two directional antennas, one GNSS system tracked, about 500 soundings/day
Geoid	4 - fair	Highly indirect.	Radio-occultation processing implies precise orbitography. Geoid derived from multi-temporal analysis
Ionospheric Scintillation	4 - fair	No specific limitation.	Two directional antennas, one GNSS system tracked, about 500 soundings/day
Gravity field	5 - marginal	Highly indirect.	Radio-occultation processing implies precise orbitography. Gravity field derived from multi-temporal analysis

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