A mountain-based occultation experiment with L2C and B1I open loop

Abstract

GNOS (GNSS Occultation Sounder) is an instrument developed by National Space Science Center (NSSC), Chinese Academy of Sciences. It was first successfully launched in September 23, 2013, as a payload of FY3C. More than 700 occultation events were received every day. The modified GNOS will also be on-board the FY3D satellite scheduled to launch in 2016. It contains three major improvements including increasing occultation channel numbers, employing open loop tracking on GPS L2C and Compass B1I and improving the gain of the antenna. In order to confirm the performance of GNOS instrument, a mountain-based experiment was carried out in China's Hebei Province on Mt. Wuling (40.598°N, 117.478°E) from June 16th to June 18th, 2015. By analyzing the experimental data, the performance of open-loop tracking on GPS L2C and Compass B1I was well validated.