Pakistan's space programme

Space research in Pakistan is conducted by the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco). Suparco's programmes consist of the launching of sounding rockets and satellite applications, especially remote sensing and communications. Its long-term goals are to develop communications and remote sensing satellites and to launch lightweight scientific satellites in near-Earth orbits. To train its scientific staff at postgraduate level, Suparco is establishing an Aerospace Institute. The Commission is very active in international forums such as the UN COPUOS, Cospar, IAF and IUCN.     

Tropopause analysis over the Iranian region using GPS radio occultation data

Near-tropopause phenomena like upper level fronts and cyclones, penetrative cumulus convection and mesoscale mechanisms of exchange make important contributions to the mixing processes in the atmosphere. Spatio-temporal monitoring of the tropopause height, temperature and pressure is an appropriate tool to show the running processes in the atmosphere. In this study, GPS radio occultation data is used to investigate the tropopause height fluctuations and the relation between the stratosphere–troposphere exchange and the aforementioned phenomena over the Iranian region. The paper shows how the position of the sub-tropical jet has changed with time, using GPS radio occultation observations. The tropopause height changes latitudinally, and three different bimodal probability distribution functions are observed. The results also show that the mixing region in the south of Iran is associated with the subtropical jet in winter. However, this region shifts north of Iran due to changes in the position of the subtropical jet during the summer. Consistency of the mixing region from the radio occultation data and the total ozone of TOMS over the Iranian region is also observed.     

Harmonic analysis of the ionospheric electron densities retrieved from FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC radio occultation measurements

In order to investigate the regular variations of the ionosphere, the least-squares harmonic estimation is applied to the time series of ionospheric electron densities derived from about five years of Global Positioning System radio occultation observations by FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites. The analysis is done for different latitudes and altitudes in the region of Iran. The least-squares harmonic estimation is found to be a powerful tool for the frequency analysis of the completely unevenly spaced time series of radio occultation measurements. Although the obtained results are slightly different from the exact expected cycles (i.e. annual and diurnal components with their Fourier decompositions, and the 27-day period) due to the low horizontal resolution of radio occultation measurements, high vertical resolution of the observations enables us to detect not only the total electron content variations but also periodic patterns of electron densities at different altitudes of the ionosphere. The dominant diurnal and annual signals together with their Fourier series decompositions are obtained, which are consistent with the previous analyses on the total electron content. In the equatorial anomaly band, the annual component is weaker than its Fourier decomposition periods. In particular, the semiannual period dominates the annual component, indicating the relationship between the semiannual variation of the electron densities and the ionospheric equatorial anomaly. From detection of the phases of the components, it is revealed that the annual signal generally has its maximum value in summers at high altitudes, and in the winters at low altitudes. This is probably due to the higher [O/N₂] ratios in winter than in the summer in the lower ionosphere. Furthermore, the semiannual component mostly peaks around solstices or about a month before/after them.