Introduction to FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 Mission

Small satellites have played a role in operational meteorology in the early space days, and were soon overtaken by larger and more capable polar and geostationary platforms. Improvements in the capabilities of small satellites deployed in constellations, and innovative payload and measurement techniques have changed that in the past decade. A group of smaller satellites can now offer abilities, which can not be achieved with single satellites, whatever their size. The FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 is a joint program underway between Taiwan and US to serve as the follow-on program of FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC. This mission aims to collect atmospheric/ionospheric soundings globally through a constellation system of 12 satellites. Although FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC was not expected to be an operational mission, its data have been well recognized and injected into various numerical weather prediction models by several major weather forecasting centers. Hence, FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 is further defined as an operational constellation system to continue the provision of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Radio Occultation (RO) data to the global users. In this paper, the framework and mission architecture of the FORMOSAT-7 /COSMIC-2 joint program are introduced. The role and responsibility of the joint team to be implemented by National Space Organization (NSPO) in Taiwan and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in US are also elaborated. The top-level mission baseline has been established and the joint team has been proceeding with the task on mission design and system interfaces. Finally, the NSPO-Built satellite that NSPO plans to develop indigenously in parallel to this joint mission is briefly introduced