Polarimetric GNSS Radio-Occultations for heavy rain detection

A Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Radio-Occultation (RO) experiment is being accommodated in the Spanish Low Earth Orbiter (LEO) for Earth Observation PAZ. The RO-payload will provide globally distributed vertical thermodynamic profiles of the Atmosphere in Near Real-Time (NRT) suitable to be assimilated into Weather Numerical Prediction Models. The NRT operability will be dispensed by the Ground Segment services of the U.S.A. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Moreover, the mission will run, for the first time from Space, a double-polarization GNSS experiment, to assess the capabilities of polarimetric GNSS-RO for detection of heavy rain events.