GNSS Radio Occultation (RO) has taken a big step forward since the 2006 launch of the COSMIC constellation by the US and Taiwan. The US/Taiwan collaboration, lead by the National Science Foundation with partners from UCAR, NASA/JPL, USAF, NOAA and the US Navy launched six micro-satellites to provide global coverage for RO soundings as a proof of operational concept, and to assess the benefit to the US, Taiwan and worldwide weather models. Since the launch of the satellites in 2006, this data type is being used operationally in virtually every major national weather prediction center worldwide, and is now being considered a critical data type by most, providing significant positive impact on weather prediction. The NOAA/USAF/Taiwan COSMIC-2 (C-2) constellation will not only provide for an operational follow-on capability to COSMIC, but it will greatly increase density of soundings in the tropics with 12 satellites and upgraded sensors, improving our ability to better detect the spawning of tropical storms, and increasing hurricane tracking accuracy by more than 25%. COSMIC-2 is also designed to be a significant space weather capability through constellation optimization and the addition of payloads specifically for space weather sensing.

This talk will provide an up-to-date summary of the C-2 Mission, as well as an overview of impact results from current GNSSRO missions, with some expectations for tropospheric and space weather results from C-2.