Processing and Validation of FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 GPS Total Electron Content Observations

Slant absolute total electron content (TEC) is observed by the Formosa Satellite-7/Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate-2 (FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2, F7/C2) Tri-GNSS Radio Occultation System (TGRS) instrument. We present details of the data processing algorithms, validation, and error assessment for the F7/C2 global positioning system (GPS) absolute TEC observations. The data processing includes estimation and application of solar panel dependent pseudorange multipath maps, phase to pseudorange leveling, and estimation of separate L1C-L2C and L1C-L2P receiver differential code biases. We additionally perform a validation of the F7/C2 GPS absolute TEC observations through comparison with colocated, independent, TEC observations from the Swarm-B satellite. Based on this comparison, we conclude that the accuracy of the F7/C2 GPS absolute TEC observations is less than 3.0 TEC units. Results are also presented that illustrate the suitability of the F7/C2 GPS absolute TEC observations for studying the climatology and variability of the topside ionosphere and plasmasphere (i.e., altitudes above the F7/C2 orbit of ∼550 km). These results demonstrate that F7/C2 provides high quality GPS absolute TEC observations that can be used for ionosphere-thermosphere data assimilation as well as scientific studies of the topside ionosphere and plasmasphere.