HR: 09:45h
AN: A51F-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Characterizing the Effects of Ducts and Super-Refraction on Planetary Radio Occultation and Atmospheric Profile Recovery
AU: * Han, C
EM: chinsan@stanford.edu
AF: Stanford University, 350 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305 United States
AU: Tyler, G
EM: len.tyler@stanford.edu
AF: Stanford University, 350 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305 United States
AB: Ducts and super-refracting layers in atmospheres remain a major obstacle to atmospheric profile recovery from planetary radio occultation experiments. These atmospheric structures trap transmitted signals or guide them away from an occultation receiver, making it difficult or impossible to sound the regions where these atmospheric features exist. In the presence of these types of refractive phenomena, inversion of occultation data for profile recovery can yield potentially misleading results. This research characterizes the effects of ducts and super-refraction on the radio occultation experiment using a wave-optics forward simulator. The work demonstrates not only how such refracting atmospheric structures present themselves in occultation data but also the results of applying current methods of profile recovery when ducts or super-refracting layers are encountered in radio occultation. Further, this research presents models for understanding radio propagation in ducts and super-refracting layers and their implications for radio occultation and inversion for atmospheric profile recovery.
DE: 0343 Planetary atmospheres (5210, 5405, 5704)
DE: 0350 Pressure, density, and temperature
DE: 0394 Instruments and techniques
DE: 0689 Wave propagation (2487, 3285, 4275, 4455, 6934)
DE: 6900 RADIO SCIENCE
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005