Radio Occultation Effective Coverage/Refresh Analysis for Ionospheric Specification

Radio occultation (RO) systems are frequently characterized by the number of occultations that they can deliver. In the past, occultation count requirements for such systems have typically been based on what was realistically possible in terms of RO sensor performance. With the possible move to larger RO satellite constellations carrying more capable RO sensors in the future, it is important to develop a better understanding of the number of sensors/satellites and associated orbital configurations that are required to achieve various environmental specification objectives. This presentation will describe an ongoing analysis that seeks to provide this understanding for the case of accurate ionospheric specification.