The equatorial El Niño-Southern Oscillation signatures observed by FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC from July 2006 to January 2012

This paper uses the tropospheric pressure, temperature, and water vapor pressure observed by six micro-satellites of the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC (F3/C) constellation to study El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events from July 2006 to January 2012. The temperature and pressure profiles are used to derive the height, pressure, temperature, and potential temperature of the lapse rate tropopause. Following the calculation of the standard normalized Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and the Niño 3.4 index, the corresponding indices of the four tropopause parameters are derived. Good agreements between the standard and F3/C-derived indices show that the derived indices are significant for monitoring ENSO signatures. With the uniform coverage, the global F3/C profiles are used to construct three-dimensional structures of temperature, pressure, and water vapor pressure to gain a better understanding of tropospheric structures and dynamics during the ENSO events.