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CCLRC RUTHERFORD APPLETON LABORATORY Research continued An artist’s impression of ENVISAT ESA Laboratory test setup for a millimetre wave experimental groundstation receiver 14
RAL SPACE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY The performance of satellite navigation systems such as GPS and Galileo are strongly affected by the behaviour of the ionosphere and by space weather Chilbolton Observatory RAIN AND CLOUD RESEARCH RADIO COMMUNICATIONS CLIMATE RESEARCH Activities within the Radio Communications Research Unit are focused on studying the impact of water, in its various atmospheric forms, on weather and climate. Using data collected with instruments at CFARR (p. 16), current research is leading to the establishment of spatial-temporal models of rain-rate variation, and the characterisation of drizzle drop size distributions. Detailed studies of water vapour density profile variations in the first 3 km of the atmosphere are being undertaken with data collected using a ground-based UV Raman lidar. Research is also being undertaken to validate atmospheric data retrieved from Earth Observation satellite measurements, and for this purpose, radar and lidar measurements made at CFARR are being used to validate estimates of cloud top height made by visible/IR imagers such as MODIS, MERIS, SEVERI and ATSR-2, and to validate rainfall estimates made using data collected with the AMSU-B radiometer on a number of NOAA satellites. The UV Raman LIDAR instrument Contact: John Goddard Tel: 01235 446127 Email: j.w.f.goddard@rl.ac.uk www.rcru.rl.ac.uk/ The Radio Research group includes research activities in radio communications, radio systems and radiowave propagation modelling. It provides expert advice to government and industry on matters related to the use of the radio spectrum. Current projects include a long term measurement campaign aimed at improving the efficiency of spectrum use by fixed services, CAMRa image of a squall line passing the UK projects designed to facilitate the introduction of spectrum trading, and the implications of new technologies including Ultra WideBand and Smart Radios. The group is a member of BROADWAN, aiming to enable Broadband Internet access through a radio based system. The group is involved in ionospheric propagation and space weather prediction, working towards a better understanding of the ionosphere with many practical applications including improving the positioning accuracy of GPS and Galileo and in HF communications. Contact: Mike Willis Tel: 01235 445492 Email: m.j.willis@rl.ac.uk www.rcru.rl.ac.uk/ The research group in the British Atmospheric Data Centre is working on aspects of climate modelling and data fusion. The climate modelling includes involvement in the world’s largest climate prediction ensemble. The physical processes which make up the climate system are being studied in targeted projects, looking at the representation of gravity waves in climate models, the influence of variability in the Atlantic sea surface temperature on European climate, and the influence of solar variability on the middle atmosphere. One data fusion project is concerned with global sea surface temperature distribution using a combination of satellite sensors, another is exploiting ENVISAT (p. 6) data to generate global fields of stratospheric ozone, methane and water vapour. RAL is a key member of DARC, the Data Assimilation Research Centre, one of the Centres of Excellence established by NERC and RAL provides data support for DARC via BADC. Contact: Martin Juckes Tel: 01235 445124 Email: m.juckes@rl.ac.uk ATSR false-colour image of a typhoon over the East China Sea 15
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