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- Title
A Technique for the Analysis of Radio Occultation Data to Retrieve Atmospheric Properties and Associated Uncertainties.
- Authors
Petricca, Flavio; Cascioli, Gael; Genova, Antonio
- Abstract
Among the techniques for atmospheric sounding, radio occultation enables an in depth investigation of vertical profiles from the ionosphere to the troposphere by measuring the radio frequency signal associated to the propagation medium. A precise characterization of the atmospheric layers requires a thorough processing of the raw radio tracking data to estimate the thermodynamic properties of the atmosphere and their related uncertainties. In this work, we present a method to retrieve refractivity, density, pressure, and temperature profiles with the associated uncertainties by analyzing a set of raw radio tracking data occulted by the atmosphere. This technique is also well suited to process two‐way Doppler measurements that are not acquired during dedicated occultation campaigns. The NASA mission Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provided a significant amount of radio occultation data that were not planned for atmospheric sounding, but were caused by the spacecraft orbit geometry. Our analysis of one of these occultation profiles with the proposed method allows indicating that MRO occultation datasets provide crucial information regarding Mars' troposphere that can be used as input of general circulation models. Plain Language Summary: A solid technique to investigate the structure of a celestial body atmosphere is based on the analysis of the signals induced by the properties of this medium on the spacecraft radio links that pass through the atmosphere during communications with the Earth. A thorough study of these measurements, that is, radio occultation, allows estimating the vertical profiles of atmospheric density, pressure, and temperature. We present here a method to retrieve these fundamental properties of the atmosphere with their related uncertainties. Radio occultation campaigns are usually planned scientific investigations with dedicated spacecraft operations and requirements. Our method allows processing radio tracking data occulted by the atmosphere that were not accounted for atmospheric studies. The NASA mission Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provided a significant amount of radio data occulted by the Martian atmosphere because of the spacecraft orbit geometry. We processed one of these radio occultation profiles to validate our approach, and to demonstrate that an accurate analysis of this MRO data set helps to enhance our understanding of Mars' troposphere. Key Points: We present a method to process raw radio tracking data for the estimation of atmospheric profiles with the associated uncertaintiesOur approach accounts for uncertainties in the spacecraft trajectory that are based on our precise orbit determination (POD) resultsProperties of Mars' atmosphere are retrieved by processing Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) unplanned radio occultation data through the proposed technique
- Subjects
RADIO astronomy; INFRARED astronomy; OCCULTATIONS (Astronomy); MARS Reconnaissance Orbiter (Spacecraft); IONOSPHERE
- Publication
Radio Science, 2021, Vol 56, Issue 5, p1
- ISSN
0048-6604
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1029/2020RS007205