Climatological patterns over South America derived from GPS RO data

R. HIERRO1, A. DE LA TORRE1, P. LLAMEDO1 AND P. ALEXANDER

Taiwan

Workshop; 5th FORMOSAT‐3 / COSMIC Data User Workshop and ICGPSRO 2011; 2011

International Program Committee Member for the 5th FORMOSAT‐3 / COSMIC Data User Workshop and ICGPSRO 2011

The Global Positioning System Radio Occultation (GPS RO) technique allows to obtain vertical profiles of atmospheric properties such as refractivity, which can be used to derive temperature and water vapor profiles in the troposphere. In particular, the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission currently provides about 2000 daily RO profiles in the neutral atmosphere, with important advantages in comparison to regular radiosoundings: global coverage under all weather conditions, sub-Kelvin temperature accuracy, high vertical resolution and long-term stability. As meteorological phenomena are closely linked to the presence of water vapor, they are mainly originated and developed in the troposphere, where almost 75% of the total atmospheric water is present. The technique capability to reproduce global and regional climatological patterns associated to mesoscale processes is tested. From FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission data (2006-2010), our previous knowledge regarding global patterns and distributions of temperature, specific humidity, pressure and dew point (i.e. monsoon systems and regional features over South America) is verified. The last patterns are associated to convective events over a limited area at the east of the Andes, taking into account the occurrence of severe storms with hail production over this region.