1. The Future of COSMIC
Where do we go from here?

2. COSMIC Situation PRO CON
Two highly successful missions
Great operational processing track record
World standard for RO processing quality
Strong science results
NOAA operational link
NCAR science link
Community support (web / workshop etc.)
Little satellite / receiver hardware experience
Increasing competition from other centers
No mission of “our own”
COSMIC II not before end of also not 100% certain
Little involvement with new technologies (x-link / reflections)
Changes at NSF (uncertain)
Budget climate

3. Clearly COSMIC should ….
become a multi-mission processing center
process the data for COSMIC follow-on when they become available
continue research into improving algorithms
develop application-specific products
continue to conduct application research (examples ABL detection, RO trends, climate biases)
continue to support NOAA in preparing for COSMIC follow-on
continue COSMIC I processing
All of this (except maybe COSMIC I processing) will be part of the
next 5-year NSF proposal

4. Multi-mission Processing Center
key to using RO for climate research
challenging to (re)process / organize different mission
COSMIC is uniquely well positioned for this
Algorithm development
Biases in LT (overcoming limitations ..)
Extending useful profiles above 40 km
Optimized processing for different applications

5. .. but should we also
get involved in new mission (x-link, other higher frequency, or surface reflection) ?
become mission coordination center (develop standard formats, coordinate downlink, offer processing software, aid mission design, …) ?
get involved in receiver development - what do we have to offer here ?
propose / conduct other “out of the box” science investigations ?
These activities are currently not planned to be included in the
NSF proposal - if we want to do them how shall we go about it ?

6. New Missions
X-link involvement is likely if Kursinski joins COSMIC - we can contribute to processing …
Reflection/Scatterometry - still not clear what science can be extracted - altimetry? surface atmospheric values? surface moisture? surface winds? PWV (like ground-based obs. …)? GFZ will fly a mission, no other planned missions known. Is it possible to track coherent phase from reflections?
Mars ionosphere - were asked to participate in an Indian Mars mission (ionsopheric RO) - present status unclear (COSMIC group was only mildly interested)
RO Research Mission - Fly high gain antenna, low noise receiver to push up the height of stratospheric soundings and reduce the LT biases

7. Receiver development This work is done at JPL, BRE and elsewhere
… but GFZ is modifying commercial receivers for RO and reflections UCAR could get involved in something similar
The new TriG receiver will have user-programmable part - we could (a) specify what must be available and (b) look into programming applications for OL and reflection work

8. New Research Projects
Investigate if ionospheric correction can be improved with additional frequencies
Investigate if higher frequency transmissions are available (to reduce iono noise correct iono. biases / consider limitations of POD)
Investigate the “EQ prediction” claims with rigorous statistical methods
New climatology (averaged bending angle inversion) correction of ionospheric biases

9. Summary
COSMIC I will continue until 2012 and beyond and COSMIC is in good funding shape for a 2-3 years
We also have some funded non-COSMIC research projects (COSMIC/AIRS, MetOp, …)
Focus right now on: (a) COSMIC II, (b) next NSF proposal
If we want to get involved in new missions / hardware development / “non-core” science then we probably need to invest (time and new staff) within the next 1-2 years