The ROSA Mission of the Italian Space Agency

The Italian Space Agency (ASI) is funding several programs of Earth Observation. In order to contribute to a better knowledge of the Glbal Warming,ASI is developing scientific and technological activities related to the study of the Atmosphere using the Radio Occultation Technique, a technique able to derive atmosph eric vertical profiles of temp erature, pressure and humidity. From space, this kind of measurements are usually made using IR and MW sounders, which has some well known limitations in vertical resolution and temperature sensitivity. The GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) Radio Occultation (RO) technique is able to investigate deeply and widely for retrieving physical parameters of Earth atmosphere.