福爾摩沙衛星3 號自2006 年4 月14 日成功的發射升空，至今(2011)已非常成功的每日生產出全球掩星觀測的大氣垂直資料。這些資料的高空間和時間覆蓋率，以及這些資料的準確性，尤其是在5 公里至35 公里高度範圍的準確性，都提供了一筆令人興奮的新的觀測資料以重新檢驗一些重要的大氣過程。例如平流層瞬間增溫現象以及此種現象對電離層的影響；大氣聖嬰現象；QBO 現象；垂直傳播的重力波現象；對流層頂高度的變化；以及比較福衛3 號的掩星觀測資料所獲得的全球溫度和其他分析方法(如 ECMWF、UKMO、NCEP)及AQUA AIRS 衛星所獲得的大氣垂直溫度結構的差異。透過這些詳細的比較分析。我們預期對上述的大氣過程將有更為深入的瞭解，而這些瞭解將有助於真正的提升模式對天氣和氣候的預測能力。 Since its successful launched on 14 April 2006, the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC (FS3C) mission has been very successful in providing daily atmospheric temperature and water vapor profiles on a global domain. The FS3C mission uses GPS radio occultation (RO) techniques to retrieve atmospheric profiles. These profiles are highly accurate for attitudes between 5 and 35 km altitudes, covering middle to upper troposphere, lower stratosphere, and middle stratosphere. These data are a treasure trove for studying important atmospheric processes such as sudden stratospheric warming and its effect in the ionosphere; ENSO events; QBO-related temperature and water vapor variations in the stratosphere; gravity waves (tropospheric source, stratospheric and ionospheric links and observations); variation in the tropopause; stratospheric wave activity associated with robust convective systems (such as typhoons, hurricanes, and cyclones) in the troposphere; global mean temperature in the troposphere and in the stratosphere; climate change signals during the 2006-2011 period; response of atmospheric temperature vertical structures to changing sea surface temperatures (SSTs). It is highly valuable to re-characterize these important atmospheric processes, and to compare what FS3C defines these processes compared with previous findings which mostly reply on data from tradition meteorological analysis from ECMWF, UKMO, NCEP; and also to compare FS3C data with more recent satellite temperature sonding obtained by using infrared retrieval from AQUA AIRS instrument. The study of these atmospheric processes can further show the true value of the FS3C missions, shed new insights into the traditional views of these atmospheric processes. In the end, the understanding will be able to help increase our understanding of these key atmospheric processes. Most importantly, these basic understanding can bring genuine advancements of the weather and climate prediction models. 研究期間：10008 ~ 10107
