An examination of COSMIC in the tropical cyclone environment

The Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) satellites provide refractivity, as well as derived temperature and moisture profiles (Anthes, Rocken, and Kuo 2000; Cucurrull et al. 2006), based on radio occultation. Because radio signals can pass through thick cloud cover and precipitation, weather conditions will not interfere with data gathering, as often occurs with remote sensing platforms. Therefore, the technology of COSMIC could be very useful to the monitoring of tropical cyclones. We will present validation results for 2006 and 2007 tropical cyclones with COSMIC, Terra/Aqua, and reconnaissance data. We will also evaluate the ability of COSMIC to detect Saharan Air Layer (SAL) events in the vicinity of tropical cyclones, and correlate the data against METEOSAT SAL channels. Finally, COSMIC data will be correlated against dust aerosol measurements taken by the NASA Calipso satellite.