FORMOSAT 7 / COSMIC-2

FORMOSAT 7 (COSMIC-2) [NSPO]

FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate) is an international collaboration between Taiwan (NSPO) and the United States (NOAA) that will use a constellation of twelve remote sensing microsatellites to collect atmospheric data for weather prediction and for ionosphere, climate and gravity research. It is a follow up mission to the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission.

The new constellation provides improved performance and a five times increase in number of measurements. The precision will also be improved.

Formosat-7 will establish operational Mission of near real-numerical weather prediction. It will collect 8000 (threshold) profiles per day (the objective number is 10000).

NSPO will design, procure, and integrate 12 spacecraft and integrate the GNSS payload provided by JPL. The satellite have GPS, GALILEO and GLONASS tracking capability. NOAA will procure the launch vehicles.

The U.S. Air Force is partnering on COSMIC-2 and will provide two space weather payloads that will fly on the first six satellites: RF Beacon transmitters and Velocity, Ion Density, and Irregularities (VIDI) instruments.

The first launch of six satellites of the low inclination constellation is planned for 2014, the second launch into the high inclination orbits will take place in 2017. The last launch might include a seventh back-up satellite.