The CYGNSS Mission: On-Going Science Team Investigations

Abstract

In 2012, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) selected the CYclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) mission coordinated by the University of Michigan (UM) as a low-cost and high-science Earth Venture Mission. The CYGNSS mission was originally proposed for ocean surface wind speed estimation over Tropical Cyclones (TCs) using Earth-reflected Global Positioning System (GPS) signals, as signals of opportunity. The orbital configuration of each CYGNSS satellite is a circular Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with an altitude ~520 km and an inclination angle of ~35°. Each single Delay Doppler Mapping Instrument (DDMI) aboard the eight CYGNSS microsatellites collects forward scattered signals along four specular directions (incidence angle of the incident wave equals incidence angle of the reflected wave) corresponding to four different transmitting GPS spacecrafts, simultaneously. As such, CYGNSS allows one to sample the Earth’s surface along 32 tracks simultaneously, within a wide range of the satellites’ elevation angles over tropical latitudes. Following the Earth Science Division 2020 Senior Review, NASA announced recently it is extending the CYGNSS mission through 30 September 2023. The extended CYGNSS mission phase is focused on both ocean and land surface scientific investigations. In addition to ocean surface wind speed estimation, CYGNSS has also shown a significant ability to retrieve several geophysical parameters over land surfaces, such as Soil Moisture Content (SMC), Above Ground Biomass (AGB), and surface water extent. The on-going science team investigations are presented in this article.