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Roundabout Way of Profiling Earth's Atmosphere Continued

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Occultation: As a GPS transmitting satellite starts to rise above the horizon relative to a low-earth-orbit receiver, its signal becomes visible to that receiver before the transmitter and receiver have a straight line of sight, because the signal is bent by the atmosphere. The degree of its bending can be inferred from the known positions of the two satellites and—when cross-correlated with other data—provides information about atmospheric temperature, pressure, and humidity.

IMAGE: JOHN MACNEIL