Simulation of radio occultation measurements

Abstract

This paper describes a wave propagator that can be used to simulate radio occultation measurements. The wave propagator is used to simulate a number of radio occultations based on European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts ECMWF atmospheric profiles. The output from the wave propagator is used as input to a Full Spectrum Inversion FSI retrieval module, which calculates geophysical parameters. These parameters are compared to the ECMWF atmospheric profiles. We also compare the output from the wave propagator with that of a 3D ray tracer. Such comparisons can be used to reveal system errors and get a better understanding of the physics of the problem and the retrieval errors in the inversion of radio occultation measurements.