[GENESIS Newsletter]: Inaugural GENESIS Newsletter

[newsletter-admin@sayatnova.jpl.nasa.gov]

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Introducing the GENESIS
Monthly Newsletter 
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GNSS Radio Occultation Community:

Spurred by the growth of GNSS occultation science and our community of
users, we thought it fitting to improve communication through an
occasional GENESIS Newsletter. You are hereby made a charter subscriber.
To unsubscribe, click here: 
http://sayatnova.jpl.nasa.gov/mailman/unsubscribe_now

The primary purpose is to convey news: new data
products, upgrades to flight software, results of general interest,
upcoming events, etc. We also wish to stimulate discussion on topics of
interest to the occultation community.

We shall try to make the Newsletter useful and brief, appearing no more
than once a month. Your feedback is most welcome.  Best
regards,

Tom Yunck 

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HIGHLIGHTS 
1. Science and technical highlights
2. Available data products
3. NRC Research Associateship Available
4. New online publications
5. New Electronic Radio Occultation Server (EROS)
6. Recent/upcoming events
7. Occultation Missions Status
8. Hot Topics
9. Feedback
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1. Science & Technical
Highlights
Two meetings were held recently about the subject
of occultations and climate. The first one was the COSMIC workshop in
Boulder, Colorado where JPL made several presentations. A related
workshop took place in Europe at the Occultations and Probing Atmosphere
and Climate (OPAC-1) meeting in Graz, Austria chaired by Gottfried
Kirchengast. 

At OPAC-1, JPL made five presentations:

* T. Yunck delivered an opening address on the history of occultation
science over the past 40 years.
* George Hajj presented the latest results from the CHAMP-SAC-C
intercomparison. 
* George also discussed the impact of Ionospheric occultation data on the
Global Assimilative Ionospheric Model (GAIM).
* S.S. Leroy presented recent results on Sounding the Troposphere by
LEO-LEO Occultation.
* C.O. Ao presented results from simulation studies that aim to
understand the sources of refractivity biases in lower troposphere
retrievals. These results suggest that an improved tracking strategy will
significantly decrease the bias.

Copies can be obtained from the GENESIS eprints archive:
http://genesis2.jpl.nasa.gov

Proceedings for OPAC-1 will be published. Further
information is available at the OPAC web site.
http://www.uni-graz.at/OPAC1Workshop-Sep2002/

2. Available Data
Products
Check on the current status of level0 and glevel
data for SAC-C and CHAMP.
http://genesis.jpl.nasa.gov/html/index.html

3. NRC Research Associateship
Available 
JPL has developed several instruments that are collecting data to improve
our current understanding of the Earth's climate processes. Newest
instrument data like Global Positioning System (GPS) radio-occultations
and AIRS are expected to shed new light on major questions about Earth's
climate dynamics. The purpose of this opportunity is to address some
major questions by exploiting the data types provided by these missions.
Encouraged research areas include the spatio-temporal dynamics of fine
scale vertical structures, their connections with planetary waves, and
their role in climate processes. We are also interested in connections
between the stratosphere, troposphere, and ocean circulation. Specific
examples are gravity wave dynamics, tropopause structure, optically thin
moist layers, and the Southern annular mode as observed by GPS
occultations, AIRS, TOPEX, JASON, and weather analyses.

For more information, please send an email to:
mailto://mtj@jpl.nasa.gov

4. Online Publications
GENESIS is building a library of online
preprints, presentations, and other publications:
http://genesis2.jpl.nasa.gov

If you have materials you would like to make
available, please register:
http://genesis2.jpl.nasa.gov/perl/set_password

and log on:
http://genesis2.jpl.nasa.gov/perl/users/home

Currently Available: 
* Theoretical Description of a Bistatic System for Ocean Altimetry Using
the GPS Signal 
* CHAMP and SAC-C atmospheric occultation results and intercomparisons
* Single frequency processing of GPS radio occultations 
* Backpropagation processing of GPS radio occultation data
* A technical description of atmospheric sounding by GPS 
occultation
* COSMIC GPS Ionospheric Sensing and Space Weather
* JPL Presentations at OPAC-1: 
o Yunck and Melbourne: Occultation science from the
sixties to present
o Hajj et al.: The impact of ionospheric occultation data on the global
assimilative ionospheric model (GAIM); CHAMP and SAC-C atmospheric
occultation results and intercomparisons 
o Ao et al.: A study of the refractivity bias in occultation retrievals
using end-to-end simulations
o Leroy et al.: Sounding the atmosphere by LEO-LEO occultation: a
simulation-retrieval system and performance analysis results
o Kursinski et al.: A LEO-LEO occultation observing system for
characterizing atmospheric humidity, temperature, geopotential, ozone,
and clouds


5. Introducing EROS-Mail
Server
To facilitate community-wide dialogue, we have
created master email list informally dubbed the Electronic Radio
Occultation Server (EROS). By sending a message to
eros@sayatnova.jpl.nasa.gov,
you will reach the full list of about 350 subscribers. (You must be on
the list to send.) 
mailto://eros@sayatnova.jpl.nasa.gov

If you have any comments on topics of general
interest (e.g. the N-bias, open-loop, rising occultations, retrieval
techniques) feel free to send a message. We expect to use it from time to
time for bulletins and alerts, such as interruptions or resumptions of
service on GENESIS.

If you wish to unsubscribe from EROS, click here:
http://sayatnova.jpl.nasa.gov/mailman/unsubscribe_now


6. Recent/Upcoming Events
* AGU Fall meeting - 6-10 December 2002,
San Francisco, California:
http://agu.org/meetings/fm02
* MISR Science Team meeting - 11-13
December 2002, Pasadena, California
* ESIP Federation Assembly - 6-10 January 2003, Pasadena,
California:
http://www.esipfed.org/Library/meetings/10th_fed_meeting/10th_fed_meeting.html

7. Occultation Missions Status
* CHAMP - operational; averaging 125
occultations per day:
http://op.gfz-potsdam.de/champ/index_CHAMP.html
* SAC-C - SAC-C data publication has
resumed as new receiver software uploads and test have been completed.
Level0 data is available starting doy 308 and glevel data is available
starting doy 307.
http://www.conae.gov.ar/sac-c/index.html
* GRACE - in commissioning phase;
occultation start date not yet set:
http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/


8. Hot Topics 
* Open-Loop Tracking: Implementation of
open-loop tracking is progressing. We expect to have a trial version in
place before the end of the year. Watch this space!
* Rising Occultations on SAC-C: Closed-loop rising occultations
may be activated shortly. Open-loop rising occultations beginning at the
surface should be introduced by early spring.
* N-bias: Receiver-induced refractivity bias in the lower
troposphere should be greatly reduced with future software uploads. Other
causes can also be mitigated. Watch this space! 
* Next-Generation Blackjack: Design for the next version of the
BlackJack receiver, to fly on COSMIC and EQUARS, has been finalized.
Flight units will be built by Broad Reach Engineering . Initial
deliveries are planned for mid 2004
http://www.broadreachengineering.com/


9. Feedback
If you have any question, comments, and/or
suggestions to improve this newsletter -- or on other GENESIS topics --
please send them to:
mailto://leoops@sdsio.jpl.nasa.gov

Thank you for your attention.