Browsing by Author "Fong, Chen-Joe"

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Constellation challenges and contributions of Taiwan weather monitoring satellites
(2008)
Fong, Chen-Joe
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Yen, Nick
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Chu, Vicky
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Yang, Eddy
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Huang, Cheng-Yung
National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan in the past ten years has successfully launched three different types of satellites. The latest one is FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC, a joint Taiwan-US project, which was successfully launched on April 15, 2006. The FORMOSAT-3 is a constellation of 6 satellites and each satellite is equipped with GPS Occultation Receiver (GOX), Tri-Band Beacon (TBB), and Tiny Ionospheric Photometer (TIP). The constellation is on the way to its final orbit configuration. All satellites remain healthy except spacecraft Right model no. 2 (FM2) with a problem of power shortage and FM3 currently staying at an orbit of 711 km due to a mechanism issue to be solved. The current sounding profiles retrieved from the GPS occultation measurements are over an average of 1800 daily. The sounding profiles have been used to study atmospheric and ionospheric structures and total electron content, and assimilated into numerical atmospheric and space weather predictions models to improve the accuracy of prediction. Taiwan has taken an active role and grown remarkably well in remote sensing researches during the last decade. Taiwan will continue to share her resources with the international community for scientific research and applications. In this paper, we will present an overview of significant contributions of the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellite mission to the global community. We will also describe the constellation challenges and novel operations solutions and the future follow-on mission planning. (1 2).
Constellation Deployment for FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Mission (vol 46, pg 3367, 2008)
(2009-04-01)
Fong, Chen-Joe
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光電工程學系
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Department of Photonics
Constellation Deployment for the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Mission
(2008-11-01)
Fong, Chen-Joe
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Shiau, Wen-Tzong
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Lin, Chen-Tsung
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Kuo, Tien-Chuan
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Chu, Chung-Huei
The FORMOSA Satellite Series No. 3/Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC) spacecraft constellation consisting of six low-earth-orbiting satellites is the world's first operational Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation mission. The mission has been jointly developed by the National Space Organization of Taiwan and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research of the U.S. in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA, and the Naval Research Laboratory for three onboard payloads, including a GPS Occultation Receiver, a triband beacon, and a tiny ionospheric photometer. The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission was successfully launched from Vandenberg into the same orbit plane of the designated 516-km circular parking orbit altitude on April 15, 2006. After the six satellites completed the in-orbit checkout activities, the mission was started immediately at the parking orbit for in-orbit checkout, calibration, and experiment of three onboard payloads. Individual spacecraft thrust burns for orbit raising were performed to begin the constellation deployment of the satellites into six separate orbit planes. All six FORMOSA717-3/COSMIC satellites are maintained in a good state of health except spacecraft flight model no. 2, which has had power shortages. Five out of the six satellites had reached their final mission orbits of 800 km as of November 2007. This paper provides an overview of the constellation spacecraft design, constellation mission operations, constellation deployment timeline evolution, associated spacecraft mass property and moment of inertia results, orbit-raising challenges, and lessons learned during the orbit-raising operations.
FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Constellation Spacecraft System Performance: After One Year in Orbit
(2008-11-01)
Fong, Chen-Joe
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Yang, Shan-Kuo
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Chu, Chung-Huei
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Huang, Cheng-Yung
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Yeh, Jia-Jing
The FORMOSAT-3 mission, also known as Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC), is the third major project of the Formosa Satellite (FORMOSAT) series implemented by the National Space Organization of Taiwan. FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC is a joint Taiwan/U.S. mission consisting of six identical low Earth orbit satellites. All six cluster satellites were successfully launched by a single Minotaur launch vehicle on April 15, 2006. The retrieved global positioning system (GPS) radio occultation (RO) data have been freely available online to the science community since shortly after the completion of satellite bus in-orbit checkout. Having completed the verification and validation, the worldwide science communities are highly satisfied with the RO data. Scientists have hailed the RO sensors as offering the most accurate, precise, and stable thermometers in space. After one year in orbit, all six FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites were in good condition (except FM2, which had power shortage issues) and were on their way toward the final constellation of six separate orbit planes with 30 degrees separation. Four out of six satellites had already reached their final mission orbit of 800 kin by mid-May 2007. Together, the six satellites have generated a total of more than 2500 RO data per day. However, only 50%-70% of the RO data as received one year after launch could be retrieved into useful atmosphere profiles. The retrieved RO data, about 1800 per day on average, have been assimilated into numerical weather prediction models by many major weather forecast centers and research institutes. This paper provides an overview of the constellation mission, the spacecraft system performance after one year in orbit, the technical challenges we have encountered, and the performance enhancements we have accomplished.
FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Spacecraft Constellation System, Mission Results, and Prospect for Follow-On Mission
(2009-02-01)
Fong, Chen-Joe
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Yen, Nick L.
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Chu, Chung-Huei
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Yang, Shan-Kuo
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Shiau, Wen-Tzong
The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC spacecraft constellation consisting of six LEO satellites is the world's first operational GPS Radio Occultation (RO) mission. The mission is jointly developed by Taiwan's National Space Organization (NSPO) and the United States' UCAR in collaboration with NSF, USAF, NOAA, NASA, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the US Naval Research Laboratory. The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites were successfully launched from Vandenberg US AFB in California at 0 140 UTC 15 April 2006 into the same orbit plane of the designated 516 km altitude. The mission goal is to deploy the six satellites into six orbit planes at 800 kin altitude with a 30-degree separation for evenly distributed global coverage. All six FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites are currently maintaining a satisfactory good state-of-health. Five out of six satellites have reached their final mission orbit of 800 kin as of November 2007. The data as received by FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites constellation have been processed in near real time into 2500 good ionospheric profiles and 1800 good atmospheric profiles per day. These have outnumbered the worldwide radiosondes (similar to 900 mostly over land) launched from the ground per day. The processed atmospheric RO data have been assimilated into the Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models for real-time weather prediction and typhoon/hurricane forecasting by many major weather centers in the world. This paper describes the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellite constellation system performance and the mission results that span the period from April 2006 to October 2007; and reviews the prospect of a future follow-on mission.
GPS radio occultation and mission results from FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC spacecraft constellation
(2007)
Fong, Chen-Joe
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Yen, Nick
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Yang, Shan-Kuo
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Chen, Shao-Shing
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Chi, Sien
The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC spacecraft constellation consisting of six LEO satellites is the world\'s first operational GPS radio occultation mission. The mission is jointly developed by Taiwan\'s National Space Organization (NSPO) and United States\' UCAR in collaboration with NASA\'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Naval Research Laboratory. The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission was successfully launched from Vandenberg on April 15, 2006 into the same orbit plane of the designated 516 kin circular parking orbit altitude. All six FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites are maintained in the good state of health and are on their way toward the final constellation of six separate orbit planes with 30-degree separations. Three out of six satellites have reached their final mission orbit of 800 km by the middle of February 2007. The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC has processed over 2500 good ionospheric sounding profiles and 1800 good atmospheric sounding profiles (similar to 900 mostly above the land mass) per day which has over the number of worldwide radiosondes launched per day. The atmospheric radio soundings data are assimilated into the Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models for real-time weather prediction and typhoon/hurricane forecast. This paper describes the mission overview; the space and ground segment architecture; the operations challenges encountered during the constellation deployment phase; and the state-of-the-art achievements and mission results of the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC that affect the RO data retrievals. The ultimate success of a real-time operation of the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission in the final constellation formation can be anticipated.
In Quest of Global Radio Occultation Mission for Meteorology beyond 2011
(2009)
Fong, Chen-Joe
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Yen, Nick L.
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Chu, Chung-Huei
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Hsiao, Chun-Chieh
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Yang, Shan-Kuo
The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission consisting of six satellites is the world\'s first demonstration of near real-time operational GPS Radio Occultation (RO) constellation mission. The success of the mission expected to operate through 2011 has initiated a new era for operational GPS RO soundings. The World Meteorological Organization had recommended continuing RO observations operationally and urges planning for a complementary follow-on mission. The follow-on mission will be a new constellation of 12 to 18 satellites equipped with the GNSS RO payload and collect over 9000 soundings per day. This higher density of sounding profiles will be useful for global and mesoscale models, and also severe weather forecasting. The follow-on mission will establish international standards so that future RO missions deployed by any country can be used together for operations and research. In this paper, we present the state-of-the-art achievements and the results of the current mission; as well as the follow-on mission planning progress.(1) (2)
Mission Results from FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Constellation System
(2008-11-01)
Fong, Chen-Joe
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Huang, Cheng-Yung
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Chu, Vicky
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Yen, Nick
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Kuo, Ying-Hwa
The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC spacecraft constellation consisting of six low-Earth-orbit satellites is the world's first operational Global Positioning System radio occultation mission. Its mission is jointly developed by Taiwan's National Space Organization and the United States's University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Naval Research Laboratory for the three onboard payloads, which include the Global Positioning System occultation receiver, the triband beacon, and the tiny ionospheric photometer. The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission was launched successfully from Vandenberg Air Force Base on 15 April 2006 into the same orbit plane of the designated 516 km circular parking orbit altitude. All six FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites are maintained in a good state of health except spacecraft flight model 2, which has a power shortage, and flight model 3, currently staying at an orbit of 711 km due to a mechanism problem to be solved, and are on their way toward the final constellation of six separate orbit planes with 30 deg separations as planned. Five out of six satellites have reached their final mission orbit of 800 km as of November 2007. The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC has processed over 1800 good atmospheric sounding profiles per day on average, which is larger than the number of worldwide radiosondes launched per day (similar to 900, mostly above the land). The atmospheric radio occultation sounding data are assimilated into the numerical weather prediction models for real-time weather prediction and typhoon/hurricane forecast. The global and some major nations' weather prediction centers have shown a significant positive impact and the forecast result will be also adapted to Taiwan's disaster warning and relief system once constellation deployment is completed by the end of 2007. With the invention of the open-loop technique by University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, the quality, accuracy, and lowest penetration altitude of the radio occultation sounding profiles are better than CHAMP data. This paper also describes the mission highlight, the constellation spacecraft system performance summary, the constellation mission operation result, and the mission science results.
Operations challenges from the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC constellation for global Earth weather monitoring
(2007)
Fong, Chen-Joe
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Yen, Nick
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Chu, Vicky
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Chen, Shao-Shing
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Chi, Sien
The joint Taiwan-U.S. FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC spacecraft constellation, consisting of six LEO satellites, is the world\'s first operational GPS radio occultation mission for global Earth weather forecast, climate monitoring, atmospheric, ionospheric and geodesy researches. The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites were launched successfully from Vandenberg on April 15, 2006 into the same orbit plane of the designated 516 km circular parking orbit altitude. After the six satellites completed in-orbit checkout activities, the mission was started immediately at the parking orbit for in-orbit checkout, calibration, and experiment of three onboard payloads. Individual spacecraft thrust bums for orbit raising were performed to begin the constellation deployment of the satellites into six separate orbit planes. Two spacecraft have already reached their final mission orbit of 800 km by the end of December 2006. The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC has processed over 1500 good atmospheric sounding profiles per day, which has exceeded the number of worldwide radiosondes launched (similar to 900 mostly above the land mass) per day and over 2500 good ionospheric sounding profiles per day, respectively. The atmospheric radio soundings data are assimilated into the Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models for real-time weather predictions and typhoon/hurricane forecasts. This paper describes the system overview, constellation mission operations, operations challenges, intense operation period campaign early results, and the operations lessons learned from this FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission.(1 2).
Space-Based Global Weather Monitoring System: FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Constellation and Its Follow-On Mission
(2009-07-01)
Fong, Chen-Joe
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Yen, Nick L.
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Chu, Vicky
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Hsiao, Chun-Chieh
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Liou, Yuei-An
The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate) mission consisting of six low-Earth-orbit satellites is the world's first demonstration of Global Positioning System radio occultation in a near real-time operational constellation for global weather monitoring and research. The mission has produced over 1800-2200 high-quality good atmospheric sounding profiles per day. Currently, the atmospheric soundings data are assimilated into operational numerical weather prediction models for global weather prediction, including typhoon/hurricane forecasts. The radio occultation data have been shown to have a positive impact on weather predictions at many national weather forecast centers. The goal of a proposed follow-on mission is to transfer from the current experimental research mission to a significantly improved real-time operational mission, which will reliably provide no less than 8000 soundings per day. We envision a new and improved mission to be a constellation of 12 satellites with data latency less than 1.5 h, which will provide greatly enhanced opportunities for operational forecasts and scientific research. In this paper, we describe highlights of the results of the current mission, the follow-on mission definition trade analysis results, and the new spacecraft constellation system design with the next-generation radio occultation receiver onboard.