1. COSMIC Retreat 2009
Bill Kuo

2. We have reasons to be proud…
3.5 years after launch, all six satellites are operating
Produced more than 2 M profiles
1188 registered users from 54 countries
COSMIC has demonstrated significant impacts on global NWP, typhoon prediction
Climate community begins to see the values of GPS RO for climate analysis
COSMIC data stimulate ionospheric research and are being used for space weather forecasting
We now have a robust GPS RO research community (about 140 participants for our recent workshop, twice more than 2 year ago)
COSMIC also motivates several countries to pursue GPS RO missions
We have delivered what we promised and more…

3. COSMIC Soundings

4. COSMIC Workshops
2009
2007

5. Challenges ahead…
We are half way through our “out-year” project, which will end April No promised funding beyond that at this time.
COSMIC-II is our best bet (nice to have our “own” mission). But, there are uncertainties both on the NOAA side and Taiwan side. Very unlikely to be launched before Data gap??
Several RO missions are being planned by other countries. But, we don’t have a strong connection with these missions (with the exception of EUMETSAT). Most of them are developing their own processing centers.
GPS RO is still a very new field. Very few universities teach GPS Met either ground-based or space-based. Still many people do not know GPS RO and are unaware of its potentials in science and operation.
A lot more research can be done with more data from more satellite missions.
UCAR COSMIC has not been actively involved in new RO technologies: Cross-link or ocean reflection, or Mars mission, … etc.

6. Staff Changes
We have recruited several new people in the past year, which have increased our burn rate:
Xinan Yue (ionospheric processing) – full time
Janet Zeng (algorithm development & science) – full time
Jason Lin (CDAAC software engineer) – full time
Ted Iwabuchi (OSSE, data impacts) – 0.5 FTE
John Braun (orbit determination) – 0.5 FTE (planed)
Ingrid Moore (administrative) from 30% to full time
Rob Kursinski (possible new hire) – 0.25 FTE (planed)
Dawn Williams – replacement for Kim Prinzi-Kimbro – full time
Ben Ho (climate applications) – from 0.5 FTE to full time
Some cut-backs:
Bill Kuo from 0.5 FTE to 0.25 FTE
Chris Rocken from 0.70 FTE to 0.5 FTE

7. Where will we be in three years?

8. Strategies…
Continue to pursue COSMIC-II, realizing that it may take time for it to get started.
Establish CDAAC as an international multiple RO processing center:
Need NSF (and/or NOAA) support
Need connections with other missions
Need other missions to agree to free data distribution
Pursue joint research proposals with NCAR and universities on the applications of GPS RO
Begin exploring new RO technology and new science
Having Rob Kursinski here will be very valuable