A proof-of-concept balloon-borne Global Positioning System radio occultation profiling instrument for polar studies

Global warming has focused attention on the polar regions and recent changes in sea and land ice distribution. Accurate modeling of the future evolution of climate and weather in the Antarctic relies heavily on remote sensing observations. However, their reliable assimilation into numerical weather models and reanalyses is challenging because of the unique environment and sparsity of in-situ observations for validation. We developed a stratospheric balloon-borne GPS radio occultation system for the 2010 Concordiasi campaign to provide refractivity and derived temperature profiles for improving satellite data assimilation. The observed excess phase delay profiles agree with those simulated from model and dropsonde profiles. 711 occultations were recorded from two balloons, comparable to the number of profiles acquired by 13 driftsonde balloons. Of these profiles, 32% descended to 4 km above the surface, without open-loop receiver tracking technology, demonstrating it is possible to retrieve useful information with relatively simple low cost instruments. Citation: Haase, J. S., J. Maldonado-Vargas, F. Rabier, P. Cocquerez, M. Minois, V. Guidard, P. Wyss, and A. V. Johnson (2012), A proof-of-concept balloon-borne Global Positioning System radio occultation profiling instrument for polar studies, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L02803, doi:10.1029/2011GL049982.