The Combined Radio Interferometry and COSMIC Experiment in Tomography (CRICKET) 
Campaign 
 
K. F. Dymond1, C. Watts2, C. Coker1, P. Bernhardt1, N. Kassim1, J. Lazio1, A. 
Cohen1, K. Weiler1, P. Crane1, L. J. Rickard3, G. Taylor3, F. Schinzel3, Y. 
Philstrom3, S. Close4, P. Colestock4, S. Myers5, A. Dhatta5 
 
1) Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375 
2) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of New Mexico, 
Albuquerque, NM 
3) Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 
NM 
4) Los Alamos National Laboratory, Santa Fe, NM 
5) National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, NM 
 
Abstract 
 
We report on the Combined Radio Interferometry and COSMIC Experiment in 
Tomography Campaign (CRICKET) held on September 15 and 17, 2007.  The experiment 
used the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate 
(COSMIC also known as FORMOSAT-3) in conjunction with the Very Large Array radio 
telescope, located near Socorro, NM, to study the ionosphere from the global 
scale down to the regional scale.  Each COSMIC satellite includes three 
instruments capable of measuring the ionosphere: the Tiny Ionospheric Photometer 
(TIP), a UV radiometer; the GPS Occultation experiment (GOX), a dual-frequency 
GPS occultation receiver; and the Tri-band Beacon (TBB), a three frequency 
coherently radiating radio beacon.  These three instruments have been 
demonstrated to be a powerful means for characterizing the global-scale 
ionosphere.  The VLA when deployed at its largest extent and while operating at 
73.8 MHz is incredibly sensitive to relative total electron content variations of 
the regional ionosphere over about a 30-100 km diameter area.  In this work, we 
concentrate on the first set of observations on September 15, 2007 at ~0830 UT.  
We have successfully married these heterogeneous data sets, using a tomographic 
data fusion approach, to produce a consistent ionospheric specification from the 
global scale down to the regional scale.