Combined satellite GPS radio occultation (RO) and high-resolution cloud wind (WindCam) instruments for weather, climate and society

Understanding and predicting tropical cyclone, boundary layer, and cloud processes require high-resolution (horizontally < 10 km and vertically < 1 km) measurements. At these scales, fine-scale numerical models are used to fully resolve the processes for developing the physical parameterizations used by larger-scale models. Verification and validation of these fine-scale model simulations rely on high-resolution observations not only on a regional but also on a global basis. These requirements pose a great challenge to spaceborne observing techniques. Here we present a small-satellite concept with substantial societal benefits and implications for weather forecasting and climate research, in which high vertical resolution temperature and humidity sounding from GPS radio occultation (RO) and high horizontal resolution wind measurements from stereoscopic-viewing cloud cameras (WindCam) are combined in a single platform. We will discuss the applications of the GPS RO and WindCam instruments with examples of tropical cyclone, boundary layer, and cloud processes as observed by the COSMIC and Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instruments.