Mimořádný ústavní seminář

Weather and Space Weather observed by FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC and FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2

J.Y. (Tiger) Liu
Graduate Institute of Space Science, National Central University, Chung-Li, TAIWAN

FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC (F3/C) was launched on 15 April 2006, which consists of six micro-satellites in the low-earth orbit with 72-deg inclination and 800 km altitude, is capable of monitoring the atmosphere and ionosphere by using the powerful technique of radio occultation (RO) receiving the GPS satellite signals.  With more than 1500 observations of atmospheric temperature and water vapor profiles and ionospheric electron density profiles per day, it provides an excellent opportunity to monitor/forecast severe weather, such as typhoon, and three-dimensional (3D) structures and dynamics of the ionospheric plasma.  The 3D global electron density allows us observing new findings on the ionospheric plasma caves and ionospheric depletion bays, understanding on the equatorial ionization anomaly, mid-latitude trough, and high-latitude Weddell Sea/Yakutsk anomaly, and studying disturbances triggered earthquakes, tsunami, volcano eruptions, solar eclipses, magnetic storms, etc.  The F3/C follow-on, FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2, which consists of six small-satellites with low inclination of 24-deg and 550 km altitude, will be launched in the 3rd quarter of 2018 to support weather forecast and ionospheric weather monitoring.