Performance Assessment of Radio Occultation Experiment on a Near Equatorial Orbit Microsatellite

Yung-Fu Tsai, Guo Xiong Lee, Bingxuan Li, Shi Tong Chin, Wee Seng Lim, Kay Soon Low

Abstract: The microsatellite, VELOX-CI, supported by Singapore’s Economic Development Board, is designed to evaluate the navigation system and radio occultation experiment for the tropical environmental monitoring. The satellite, with the size of a mini-fridge, was launched on 16 December 2015, together with five other Singapore satellites from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The scope of VELOX-CI program is to develop the atmospheric measurement payload, GPSbased attitude determination, and star tracking algorithm for precise attitude determination. VELOX-CI carries a GPS receiver payload for measuring the atmospheric effect on the propagated GPS signals. This payload consists of three dual-frequency geodetic-grade GPS receivers for attitude determination experiment. Moreover, VELOX-CI was launched into near equatorial orbit (NEO) so that more radio occultation observations in tropical region could be obtained. In this paper, the VELOX-CI program and its radio occultation payload will be described. VELOX-CI operations as well as the analysis of receiver’s performance and radio occultation experiment would also be highlighted. The success of the payload will provide atmospheric sounding for long term studies.
Published in: Proceedings of the 29th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2016)
September 12 - 16, 2016
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon
Pages: 3724 - 3730
Cite this article: Tsai, Yung-Fu, Lee, Guo Xiong, Li, Bingxuan, Chin, Shi Tong, Lim, Wee Seng, Low, Kay Soon, "Performance Assessment of Radio Occultation Experiment on a Near Equatorial Orbit Microsatellite," Proceedings of the 29th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2016), Portland, Oregon, September 2016, pp. 3724-3730. https://doi.org/10.33012/2016.14591
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