Atmospheric Profiles from KOMPSAT-5 Radio Occultation

KOMPSAT (KOrea Multi-Purpose SATellite)-5 for the earth observation and scientific research is scheduled to launch in 2009. The second payload, AOPOD (Atmosphere Occultation and Precision Orbit Determination) system, consists of a space-borne dual frequency GPS receiver and a laser retro reflector. GPS radio occultations from AOPOD system can be used to generate profiles of refractivity, temperature, pressure and water vapor in the neutral atmosphere with a high vertical resolution. Also the radio occultation in the ionosphere provides an inexpensive tool of vertical electron density profile. Currently, many LEO missions with GPS radio occultation receivers are on orbit and more GPS occultation missions are planed to launch in the near future. In this paper, we simulated radio occultation measurements from KOMPSAT-5 and retrieved atmospheric profiles using the simulated data.