COSMIC Interagency Meeting Dallas

Printed 04/20/23 UCAR COSMIC Project Office

COSMIC Interagency MeetingDallas


What is COSMIC?

A constellation of eight micro-satellites will be launched into low earth orbit (~800 km) in December 2002.

Each satellite will carry a GPS receiver, a tiny ionospheric photometer, and a tri-band beacon transmitter.

~4,000 GPS/MET radio occultation soundings will be obtained per day.

Data will be available for operational use in T + 3 hours. Real-time scintillation maps available in 5~10 min. COSMIC data will be processed at the COSMIC Data

Analysis and Archive Center (CDAAC) at UCAR and made available to operational and research communities free of charge.


COSMIC Constellation

GPSsatellite

COSMICsatellite


The COSMIC System

The design life for COSMIC satellites is two years. However, the expendables are sized for five years.

The development and launch of the COSMIC system plus two years of operation will cost ~$100 M.

The National Space Program Office (NSPO) in Taiwan agrees to provide ~80% of the support for the program.

~$20 M is needed from the U.S. to complete the development of the COSMIC system.

Additional support is needed for research and operational applications using the COSMIC data, and to extend COSMIC into out years.


COSMIC Spacecraft


COSMIC vs Radiosonde: Global

RadiosondeCOSMIC


COSMIC Update

The U.S. Dept. of State has approved the Technology Assistance Agreement between UCAR and NSPO.

UCAR and NSPO have completed the preliminary design of the COSMIC system.

UCAR plans to establish a five-year contract with NSPO in February 1999 to begin the development of the COSMIC system.

UCAR and NSPO need to know the level of support of U.S. agencies for COSMIC with high degree of certainty by late January 1999.


Establishing a U.S. Component of COSMIC

UCAR has briefed the U.S. Federal agencies on the COSMIC project and the scientific and operational opportunities COSMIC will offer.

Two Interagency COSMIC Meetings were held on 11 August 1998 and 3 November 1998, respectively.

COSMIC will benefit many Federal agencies, and it is reasonable and fair that the COSMIC support be shared among the agencies.

UCAR has developed a draft Interagency Funding Proposal (IFP) for COSMIC, with suggested cost-sharing among the agencies.


Benefits and Proposed Roles for Each Agencies

Agency Benefit Role – Provide the Support for:

NSF Support of universityscientific research

The development of research COSMIC DataAnalysis and Archive Center, including softwaredevelopment and computer hardware.

NASA Leadership in micro-satellite and GPS radiooccultation technology

GPS Flight Receiver, GPS instrument firmwareand software development and Fiducial networkupgrade (through GEO proposal).

USAF Space weathermonitoring, real-timeglobal and theater-scaleweather prediction

The development of real-time datacommunication system (VSAT) and thedeployment of a global beacon network.

NOAA Global weatherprediction, monitoringof space weather climatechange

Partial support for the upgrade of researchCDAAC into an operational CDAAC withredundant hardware and full-time operationalstaff, and data communication cost.

US Navy Global and regionalscale weather predictionand ionospheric dataassimilation

Partial support for the upgrade of researchCDAAC into an operational CDAAC and supportthe development of the beacon receiver, and datacommunication cost.

STP Several high-prioritypayloads will belaunched

Provide partial launch support for COSMIC.


Proposed COSMIC Budget by Agency

FY99 FY00 FY01 FY02 FY03 Totalin $K

NSF 571 809 1,385 1,404 703 4,872

NASA 80 1080 1080 680 80 3,000

Air Force 315 625 1,714 1,094 409 4,157

NOAA 244 605 720 490 506 2,565

Navy 162 342 400 284 292 1,480

STP 1,500 1,500 3,000

TOTAL 1,372 3,461 6,799 5,452 1,990 19,074


COSMIC Management at UCAR

UCAR realized the necessity to bring in industry experience and engaged in a long, extensive recruitment process that yielded Kurt Brock as Systems Manager.» Kurt was with Space Systems/Loral for 8 years. His assignments

included:– Chief Systems Engineer for Globalstar (multi-national team,

streamlined constellation design, multiple funding partners)

– Program Manager GPS Tensor (130+ space flight GPS receivers designed and built for Globalstar with a development process similar to JPL current pursuit)

– President of Loral Integrated Navigation and Communication Services (A Globalstar reseller where Kurt was responsible for division-wide performance)

» Kurt was most recently Spectrum Astro’s Director of Commercial and International Programs and has learned better, cheaper, faster.


COSMIC Spacecraft Development Team

UCAR has established a team of highly experienced, micro-satellite designers to lead the spacecraft development effort:

Chris McCormick - 18 years experience, designer of MSTI and Deep Space 1.

Paul Stoltz - 20 years experience, PhD Stanford, ACS Designer Orbcomm.

Maria Evans - 15 years experience, Mission Designer Orbcomm. Neil Beidelman - 15 years experience, Structural Designer Orbcomm. Mark Krebs - 15 years experience, ACS Designer Orbcomm.


Technical Review and Oversight

UCAR will also continue to use expert external consultants for technical review and oversight» Technical Review Team will include:

– General Don Kutyna (former CINC Space and reviewer of the Challenger disaster)

– Dr. Wah Lim (VP Engineering and Operations, Hughes)

– Dr. George Gleghorn (former VP engineering, TRW)

– Professor Bob Twiggs (Stanford University Director of Small Satellite Development Laboratory)

UCAR will also engage an oversight committee with representatives from every US funding agency


CDAAC at UCAR

GPS/MET track record» 11,000 (level 3) profiles & 62,000 level 1 soundings processed» 123 data use agreements signed - 40,000 web hits/month

Highly qualified & experienced team in place» Team will play an important part in COSMIC system development

UCAR’s commitment to support university science» CDAAC will collaborate with Unidata, UNAVCO, etc.

CDAAC is a key component of collaboration with Taiwan» Taiwan expects CDAAC to provide operational rapid results» Taiwan requires UCAR to help with establishing TACC» Visitor support infrastructure in place

Other US agencies expect low-latency CDAAC results» i.e. USAF, NCEP


Relationship between CDAAC & GEO

UCAR’s CDAAC Dedicated to the processing of

COSMIC data. Upgradable for real-time

operational data processing. Develop independent diffraction

correction and alternative retrieval algorithm.

Software development effort is highly complementary to GEO.

UCAR has a contractual obligation to NSPO and U.S. funding agencies.

CDAAC is a focal point of U.S. component of COSMIC.

JPL’s GEO Dedicated to support the four

LEO missions prior to COSMIC. No strong real-time data latency

requirement. Develop open-loop and lower-

tropospheric retrieval algorithm which are crucial to COSMIC and other LEO missions.

GEO is a back-up data center for CDAAC.

Primary focus will be on the development of advanced GPS software, firmware, and advanced retrieval algorithm.

COSMIC Interagency Meeting Dallas

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