将福卫三号星系计划(COSMIC)气象、电离层及气候卫星探测系统、大气红外探测器(AIRS)反演的大气温度和湿度廓线与时间、空间匹配的欧洲中心中期天气预报(ECMWF)、美国环境预报中心(NCEP)分析值和无线电探空观测值进行比较, 结果表明, COSMIC具有垂直分辨率高、全天候的观测特点, 反演的大气温度和湿度廓线相对于AIRS而言与无线电探空观测值更接近, 能提供大气廓线的更精细结构, 但受掩星事件发生时所能探测最低高度的限制, 不能得到该高度以下的大气信息。AIRS在晴空时大气温湿廓线反演精度较高, 但受云天的限制, 在云层以下, 反演精度就大大降低。

Constellation Observing System for Meteorology Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) provides a new approach to remote sensing the atmospheric profile for areas difficult to periodically measure. Comparing the vertical profile of atmospheric temperature and water vapor derived from COSMIC and Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) retrievals with the collocated European Center of Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis values and radiosonde observations is described in detail in this paper. The results show that the retrievals derived from COSMIC with the feature of global covering, high precision and vertical resolution, low consuming, quasi-real time and all-weather measurement are more close to radiosonde observations relative to AIRS retrievals, at the same time COSMIC retrievals can provide the atmospheric profile structure more detail. The COSMIC shortcoming is the detect height be limited by occultation observation, so it cannot acquire the atmospheric information of low sky. Though AIRS has the better retrieval precision in clear sky it still cannot be used to detect cloudy conditions.