GPS Radio Occultation with CHAMP and GRACE: Recent Results

Abstract

The German CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload) satellite provides continuously GPS radio occultation data since February 2001. The measurements are analyzed by an operational orbit and occultation processing system at GFZ. In total similar to 170 000 high quality globally distributed vertical profiles of refractivity, temperature and water vapor are provided as of October 2004. The ground infrastructure from GFZ allows for the demonstration of a rapid data analysis since February 2003. The average delay between each measurement and provision of atmospheric excess phase data was reduced to similar to 4 hours by mid April 2004 and is continuously reached. The complete set of the available refractivity profiles is compared with corresponding analysis data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) between 0 km and 30 km altitude. The comparison shows nearly bias-free refractivity between similar to 7 krn and 30 km, the standard deviation is similar to 1 %. The known negative refractivity bias of the CHAMP data in relation to ECMWF is significantly reduced in comparison to earlier product versions by applying the Full Spectrum Inversion (FSI) method for the data analysis in the lower troposphere. First radio occultation measurements from the GRACE-B (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) satellite are available for a 25 h period on July 28/29, 2004. The stability of the satellite clock from GRACE-B is significantly improved in relation to CHAMP. This allows for precise occultation analysis using 30 s clock solutions applying a zero difference technique. Thus the disadvantageous use of a reference GPS satellite link to eliminate the clock error from GRACE-B can be avoided.