COSMIC-2 also known as FORMOSAT-7, is the constellation of satellites for

meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

ionosphere The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays ...

climatology Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "slope"; and , '' -logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. Climate concerns the atmospher ...

, and

space weather Space weather is a branch of space physics and aeronomy, or heliophysics, concerned with the varying conditions within the Solar System and its heliosphere. This includes the effects of the solar wind, especially on the Earth's magnetosphere, ion ...

research. FORMOSAT-7 is a joint US-

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

ese project including National Space Organization (NSPO) on the Taiwanese side and the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...

(NOAA) and the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

(USAF) on the US side. FORMOSAT-7 is the successor of FORMOSAT-3 The six satellites of the constellation were launched 25 June 2019 on a

Falcon Heavy Falcon Heavy is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle with partial reusability that can carry cargo into Earth orbit and beyond. It is designed, manufactured and launched by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket consists of a center core ...

rocket. They reached their designated mission orbits in February 2021, after eighteen months of gradual orbital adjustments. Full operational capability was achieved in October 2021.

Pre-launch

On the morning of 14 April 2019, President

Tsai Ing-wen Tsai Ing-wen (; pinyin: ''Cài Yīngwén''; born 31 August 1956) is a Taiwanese politician and legal scholar who served as the seventh president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2016 to 2024. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party ...

traveled to

Hsinchu Hsinchu (, ), officially Hsinchu City, is a city located in northwestern Taiwan. It is the most populous city in Taiwan that is not a special municipality, with estimated 450,655 inhabitants. Hsinchu is a coastal city bordering the Taiwan ...

City to take part in send-off activities for the Formosat-7 satellite. She commended the hard work and accomplishments of the research and development team, and hailed Formosat-7 as a milestone in promoting Taiwan's technological diplomacy, noting that she expected the satellite would display "the brilliance of Taiwan's aerospace technology on the international stage". On 15 April, the satellites were placed aboard a Taiwanese

China Airlines China Airlines (CAL; zh, t=中華航空, poj=Tiong-hôa Hâng-khong, p=Zhōnghuá Hángkōng, first=t, c=, s=) is the state-owned flag carrier of the Taiwan, Republic of China (Taiwan). It is one of Taiwan's two major airlines, along with E ...

cargo plane at

Taoyuan International Airport Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (Traditional Chinese: 臺灣桃園國際機場) is the main international airport serving Taiwan, particularly the northern region and Taipei. Located in Dayuan District, Dayuan, Taoyuan, Taiwan, Taoyuan, ...

. The six satellites were packed in three climate controlled transport crates. The satellites were shipped as

diplomatic pouch A diplomatic bag, also known as a diplomatic pouch, is a container with certain legal protections used for carrying official correspondence or other items between a diplomatic mission and its home government or other diplomatic, consular, or other ...

to speed their journey through US customs, the first time a satellite had been shipped as such.

Design

78% of components for the satellites were made in Taiwan. The satellites receive signals from both

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

and

GLONASS GLONASS (, ; ) is a Russian satellite navigation system operating as part of a radionavigation-satellite service. It provides an alternative to Global Positioning System (GPS) and is the second navigational system in operation with global cove ...

. The constellation collects more than 4,000 pieces of data a day.

Radio-Occultation Payload

The primary payload for the COSMIC-2 satellites is the

Radio Occultation Radio occultation (RO) is a remote sensing technique used for measuring the physical properties of a planetary atmosphere or ring system. Satellites carrying onboard GNSS-Radio occultation instruments include CHAMP, GRACE and GRACE-FO, MetOp an ...

instrument. This instrument is capable of measuring atmospheric effects by analyzing the propagation of

GNSS A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geopositioning. A satellite navigation system with global coverage is termed global navigation satellite system (GNSS). , four global systems are op ...

signals through said atmosphere. The instrument is composed of the Tri-band GNSS (TriG) RO and POD Receiver and four Antennas: * Two Radio Occultation Arrays (the Cafeteria Cups Antenna) one Forward, one Aft * Two Precise Orbit Determination Antennas, one Forward, one Aft

Cafeteria Cups Antenna

COSMIC-2 Cafeteria Cups Radio Occultation Antenna Array

Each RO Antenna is composed of three vertical sub-arrays, four elements each. Each element is a two-turn helical spiral. The collected signals from the four vertical elements are combined with a low loss

beamformer Beamforming or spatial filtering is a signal processing technique used in sensor arrays for directional signal transmission or reception. This is achieved by combining elements in an antenna array in such a way that signals at particular angles ...

. The name 'Cafeteria Cups' comes from the fact that the antenna elements in the very first prototype were made out of

plastic cup A plastic cup is a cup made out of plastic, commonly used as a container to hold beverages. Some are reusable while others are intended for a single use followed by recycling or disposal. Disposable plastic cups are often used for gatherings ...

s from the JPL cafeteria. The Antenna is fabricated out of 3D Printed FDM Ultem 9085. This makes the COSMIC-2 RO antenna the first 3D printed part on the outside of a spacecraft to be qualified to NASA Class 2B spaceflight.

Launch

COSMIC-2 launched on

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

from

Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) is the first of Launch Complex 39's three launch pads, located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The pad, along with Launch Complex 39B, was built in the 1960s to accommodate the Saturn V l ...

on 25 June 2019.

Post-launch

The first data from COSMIC-2 was made public in March 2020 with the new data improving the accuracy of weather forecasts by 10-11%. All six satellites reached their mission orbits by February 2021. The mission achieved full operational capability in October 2021.

References

External links

FORMOSAT-7
at National Space Organization {{Orbital launches in 2019 Earth observation satellites of Taiwan Spacecraft launched in 2019 SpaceX commercial payloads