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FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC science mission update

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Abstract

The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission is a microsatellite mission for weather forecast, climate monitoring, and atmospheric, ionospheric and geodesy research. This mission is a collaborative Taiwan-USA science experiment to deploy a constellation of six microsatellites in low Earth orbits. The mission life is 2 years with a goal of 5 years. The final mission orbit has an altitude of 750–800 km. Each satellite consists of three science payloads: global positioning system (GPS) occultation experiment (GOX) payload, tiny ionospheric photometer (TIP) and tri-band beacon (TBB). The GOX will collect the GPS signals for the study on atmosphere, ionosphere, and geodesy. The TIP and TBB can provide the electron distribution information for ionospheric research. The deployment of the FORMOSAT-3 constellation and the resulting influence on the occultation sounding distributions are reported. Details are also given on GOX, TIP, and TBB payload operations and the contributions of the Taiwan Science Team.

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Acknowledgements

The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC program is a cooperative program between the National Science Council, Taiwan and the National Science Foundation USA. The authors would like to thank the Taiwan science teams and the corporation with UCAR, JPL, and NRL.

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Correspondence to Bor-Han Wu.

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Wu, BH., Chu, V., Chen, P. et al. FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC science mission update. GPS Solut 9, 111–121 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-005-0140-z

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