GPS radio occultation with CHAMP: First results
and status of the experiment
J. Wickert, T. Schmidt, C. Marquardt, Ch. Reigber, K.-H. Neumayer, G. Beyerle, R. Galas,
L. Grunwaldt
GeoForschungszentrum Potsdam, Division Kinematics & Dynamics of the Earth,
Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany.
Abstract. The GPS (Global Positioning System)
radio occultation experiment onboard the German
CHAMP (CHAllenging Microsatellite payload)
satellite was successfully started on February 11,
2001. By the end of July 2001 about 16,000
occultations were recorded. More than 80% of the
measurements could be processed to derive vertical
profiles of atmospheric temperature and specific
humidity. Throughout the measurement period GPS
anti-spoofing mode was enabled. On average, about
230 globally distributed occultations per day were
recorded. Their distribution shows a characteristic
latitudinal dependence with maximum occultation
density at polar regions and minimum density in the
equatorial region. A statistical comparison of dry
temperature profiles, derived from CHAMP
measurements, and corresponding meteorological
analyses shows excellent agreement between 8 and
30 km altitude. For the Northern hemisphere the
mean deviation is <0.5 K with a standard deviation
of <1 K between 12 and 25 km.
A single difference technique was applied to the
data analysis. The temperature difference for an
individual profile compared to the corresponding
data, retrieved by double differencing, is <0.1 K
below 20 km and <0.5 K below 35 km altitude.
Keywords. GPS radio occultation, CHAMP,
remote sensing, temperature profiles
1 Introduction
GPS radio occultation is a promising tool for
remote sensing of Earth’s atmosphere [Melbourne
et al., 1994]. Due to the unique combination of high
accuracy, global coverage, high vertical resolution,
long-term-stability and all-weather capability the
technique offers a wide spectra of applications in
climate monitoring, weather forecast and
atmospheric research [Kursinski et al., 1997].
Assimilation studies using GPS radio occultation
data have already shown that this new type of
remote sensing data significantly improves the
accuracy of global and regional weather analyses
and prediction [Kuo et al., 2000; see also Eyre,
1994].
The pioneering satellite mission for GPS radio
occultation technique for global sounding of Earth’s
neutral atmosphere was the U.S. American
GPS/MET experiment [Ware et al., 1996]. GPS/-
MET also demonstrated the potential of GPS radio
occultation technique for global sounding of Earth’s
ionosphere [e.g. Hajj and Romans, 1998].
The successful launch of CHAMP (Fig. 1), the
German geoscience satellite [Reigber et al., 2001,
2000], is the next step for improving the GPS radio
occultation technique. Beside the determination of
Earth’s gravity and Earth’s magnetic field, CHAMP
performs GPS radio occultation measurements for
global sounding of Earth’s neutral atmosphere and
ionosphere.
CHAMP was launched on July 15, 2000 from
Russian COSMODROME Plesetsk, Russia
(62.50 N, 40.30 E) into an almost circular, near
polar orbit with an initial altitude of 454 km
(eccentricity=0.004, inclination=87.2°).
The GPS radio occultation experiment onboard
CHAMP has successfully started on February 11,
2001. First results [Wickert et al., 2001b] indicate
the potential of CHAMP to significantly improve
the GPS occultation technique.
Fig. 1: CHAMP satellite with GPS occultation antennas.
Due to the occultation antenna geometry
(directional RHCP helix antenna tilted by 20°
against anti-velocity direction to the Earth’s limb
with a gain of ~10 dB in boreside direction; ~3 dB
at 45° viewing angle) and the latest generation of
JPL’s (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) GPS flight
receiver the signal quality is significantly better
compared to GPS/MET during periods with
GPS radio occultation with CHAMP: First results and status of the experiment
Wickert et al., Proc. IAG 2001 Scientific Assembly, 2-8 September 2001, Budapest, Hungary, Springer Series

activated anti-spoofing (A/S) mode on GPS. This 2.2 Automatic data processing
allows for atmospheric temperature sounding with
sub-Kelvin accuracy with high vertical resolution An automatic data processing system was developed
even under A/S-on conditions. More than 50% of [Wehrenpfennig et al., 2001] to provide CHAMP’s
the recorded profiles reach the first kilometer above atmospheric data products to weather forecast
Earth’s surface [Wickert et al., 2001b]. centers. The system processed data from different
Furthermore, first promising occultation results sources (orbit, GPS ground & space based and
from the U.S. American-Argentinian SAC-C meteorological data) and distributes them to various
satellite (launched November 21, 2000, 18:24 UTC) scientific analysis software modules (e.g. double
were presented by Meehan and Hajj [2001]. differencing or inversion). The atmospheric data
Together with the American-German twin satellite (products) are provided to the scientific user
mission GRACE (Gravity and Climate Recovery community via an interface to the ISDC
Experiment, launch scheduled for March 5, 2002) a (Information System and Data Centre).
four-satellite configuration for atmospheric The CHAMP atmospheric processor (CAP)
profiling will be available in the near future. We system consists of controlling and scientific
note, that SAC-C and GRACE have the capability components. The controlling unit coordinates the
to record setting as well as rising occultations, data flow to the scientific applications (analysis
whereas CHAMP observes setting occultations. We software modules) and starts them automatically
expect that by mid-2002 more than ~1,200 daily when all input data are available. The CAP is
globally distributed vertical profiles of atmospheric designed to be easily extended by additional
parameters will be available. scientific modules or input data. A graphical
supervising tool supports the administration. CAP
2 Data analysis and processing allows for extension to other single- or multi-
satellite occultation missions.
2.1 Data analysis
3 Occultations
The analysis of the CHAMP occultation data is
described by Wickert et al. [2001a, b]. A double During GPS/MET the data analysis was primarily
difference method is employed to calibrate the focused on periods with A/S-off (“prime-times”).
Data processing of A/S-on data required more effort
atmospheric excess phase. GPS ground and
in data analysis, due to significantly higher noise
CHAMP precise phase data (L1, L2) are combined
level of L2 data. Consequently, from about
to correct for satellite clock errors. Precise orbit
50,200 occultations, recorded by GPS/MET, only
information of CHAMP and GPS satellites are 9,050 (estimated from Rocken et al., [1997])
available from GeoForschungsZentrum’s (GFZ) measurements were analysed.
orbit determination facility [e.g. König et al., 2001]. During the first stage of CHAMP’s occultation
GPS ground station data are provided by a fiducial experiment, from February to July, 2001 in total 9
ground network, consisting of about 30 globally measuring campaigns were performed (Tab. 1).
distributed stations [Galas et al., 2001]. It was
installed and is operated jointly by JPL and GFZ.
The vertical profiles of atmospheric parameters Table 1. Measuring periods of the first stage of the CHAMP
are derived from atmospheric excess phases using occultation experiment (February to July 2001). The number
the geometric optics approach and the Abel of recorded and processed events per measuring period is
inversion technique [e.g. Hocke, 1997]. The dry listed.
temperature is obtained from the hydrostatic
equation and the ideal gas law [e.g. Steiner et al., No. Period Occultations Occultations
1999; Kursinski et al., 1997; Melbourne et al., (recorded) (processed)
1994]. 1 February 11 7 7
In the presence of water vapor a temperature 2 February 16 112 104
3 February 23 17 16
profile is needed to separate dry and wet
4 March 5-9 1,068 901
contributions to the refractivity. Our retrieval 5 March 29-April 3 1,177 830
follows the iterative algorithm described by 6 April 6-7 324 275
Gorbunov and Sokolovskiy [1993]. The temperature 7 April 16-21 1,220 721
data is obtained from operational 6 hourly 8 May 14-June 10 5,849 4,881
meteorological analyses of the European Centre for 9 June 18 – July 14 6,046 4,668
Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). total 15,820 12,403
GPS radio occultation with CHAMP: First results and status of the experiment
Wickert et al., Proc. IAG 2001 Scientific Assembly, 2-8 September 2001, Budapest, Hungary, Springer Series

During these periods 15,820 occultations were

recorded. About 80% of them (12,403) were
operationally analysed by GFZ’s occultation
processing system. Throughout these periods A/S
was activated. A significant higher L1 and L2 SNR
(compared to GPS/MET during A/S-on) was
observed already during the first occultation
measurements [Wickert et al., 2001b]. Thus the data
processing was not limited due to activated A/S.

3.1 Number of daily occultations

Fig. 2: Number of occultations per 106km2 (occultation
density) as a function of geographical latitude for all 15,820
The number of daily available occultations for some
CHAMP occultations, recorded between February and end of
measuring periods is listed in Tab. 2. On average July 2001.
225 occultations were observed per day. We note
that the number of daily occultations also depends
on the configuration of the occultation scheduler, and South were observed. The longitudinal
e.g. viewing angle of the occultation antenna. distribution is more uniform (Fig. 3). Again,
structures with a period of about 60/70° in longitude
appear. The maximum value of 280 occultations is
Table 2. Average number of daily recorded occultations reached between 135 and 140° East. The smallest
(minimum duration: 20s) for different measuring periods.
number (~170) was observed between 155° and
Period Occultations Average per day 165° West.
March 5-9 1,068 247
March 29-April 3 1,177 238
April 16-21 1,220 217
May 14-June 10 5,849 217
June 18-July 14 6,046 223

3.2 Global coverage

The coverage of CHAMP occultations was

examined for all 15,820 occultations recorded from
the start of the experiment to end of July 2001. The
Earth’s surface was divided into a grid with 5°
resolution in geographical latitude and longitude,
and the number of occultations within each grid cell
pixel was determined using the latitude and
longitude at the end of the occultation.
The resulting distribution of occultations in
latitude and longitude is shown in Fig. 2 and 3,
respectively. For clarity the latitudinal distribution
is shown as occultation density (occultations per
area). The resulting occultation density is
symmetric with respect to the Equator, but not
uniform. We observe differences up to about 700%.
The lowest coverage is reached at the equator
region (~20 occultations per 106km2). Maximum
density of occultations was reached at polar regions
(~140 occultations per 106km2). Local maxima with
period of about 30° (Fig. 2) at ~25° and ~55° North
Fig. 3: Global Distribution of occultation events as a function
of geographical longitude for all 15,820 CHAMP occultations
recorded between February and end of July 2001.
4 Validation with ECMWF
A first comparison of CHAMP temperature profiles
with ECMWF data was presented by Wickert et al.
[2001b]. The dry temperature profiles were
generated with an earlier version of GFZ’s
occultation processing software. 438 vertical
profiles, derived from CHAMP measurements
between April 18-21, were compared with
temperatures from ECMWF.
GPS radio occultation with CHAMP: First results and status of the experiment
Wickert et al., Proc. IAG 2001 Scientific Assembly, 2-8 September 2001, Budapest, Hungary, Springer Series
Fig. 4: Statistical comparison (mean and standard deviation)
between dry temperature profiles derived from CHAMP
measurements and from 6-hour ECWMF analyses during
April 19-21, 2001. The differences (CHAMP-ECMWF) are
plotted for (a) 166 profiles in the northern hemisphere
(>30°N), (b) 118 profiles at low latitudes (30°N to 30°S) and
(c) 154 profiles in the southern hemisphere (<30°S).
Here we compare the same data set with dry
temperatures derived from ECMWF temperature
and humidity data (Fig. 4). A statistical
optimization of the bending angles was performed
using the MSISE-90 climatology [Hedin, 1990] as
described by Hocke [1997]. In contrast to Wickert
et al. [2001b] we have used ECMWF rather than
climatological values to initialize the integration of
the hydrostatic equation at 45 km. The result is a
significant reduction of the warm bias against
ECMWF at altitudes of 25 km and above, which
was found by Wickert et al. [2001b]. It should be
noted, though, that biases against the UKMO
(United Kingdom Meteorological Office)
Stratospheric Analyses have increased.
A possible explanation of the warm temperature
bias in the mid stratosphere are errors in the a priori
data used for the bending angle smoothing [Healy,
2001] and for the initialization of the hydrostatic
equation [Steiner et al., 1999]. Marquardt et al.
[2001] argued that this is the reason for an apparent
warm bias found in GPS/MET data during February
1997 at high latitudes of the Northern hemisphere.
For the period examined in this study we have
found that the MSISE-90 climatology is by up 10 K
warmer than the ECMWF analyses between 40 and
45 km. According to Steiner et al. [1999] this is
consistent with the biases found in the first version
of CHAMP retrievals discussed by Wickert et al.
[2001b]. Furthermore, systematic errors might be
due to ionospheric residuals occuring at
stratospheric heights [Kursinski et al., 1997].
The comparison of the CHAMP profiles with
ECMWF (Fig. 4) shows excellent agreement for
high latitudes at both the Northern and Southern
hemisphere. The mean deviation is smaller than 1 K
between 8 and 30 km with a standard deviation of
less than 2 K. Between 12 and 25 km the mean
deviation is less than 0.5 K with standard deviations
below 1 K. This is comparable to the mean and
standard deviations observed by GPS/MET
[Marquardt et al., 2001; Rocken et al., 1997].
Larger deviations are found in equatorial regions,
where the data sets exhibit biases of 1-2 K. Also,
standard deviations are also slightly larger than at
higher latitudes. It is not clear if these deviations are
due to larger uncertainties in the CHAMP data or in
the analyses. A more careful validation based on a
larger data set is required.
Around the tropopause (10-12 km at higher
latitudes, 15-18 km in the tropics), CHAMP data are
colder than the analyses. We relate this to the better
vertical resolution of the radio occultation
measurements in comparison to the analyses which
were available on standard pressure levels only. A
similar bias was observed in GPS/MET data
[Rocken et al., 1997].
5 Specific humidity
Fig. 5 shows the zonal mean distribution of specific
humidity for one week (May 28 – June 3, 2001) as
derived from CHAMP data. The zonal mean
distribution agrees qualitatively well with those
obtained from various operational meteorological
analyses (ECMWF, National Centers for
Environmental Predictions (NCEP)). In particular,
the rich meridional structure shown in Fig. 5 is also
present in the meteorological analysis. Local errors,
however, are large and partly related to the use of a
priori data in the classical water vapor retrieval
[Marquardt et al., 2001]. A more detailed
discussion of the first results of CHAMP’s global
Fig. 5: Zonal mean of specific humidity [g/kg] between May
28 and June 3, 2001, derived from 1,103 globally distributed
CHAMP occultation measurements.
GPS radio occultation with CHAMP: First results and status of the experiment
Wickert et al., Proc. IAG 2001 Scientific Assembly, 2-8 September 2001, Budapest, Hungary, Springer Series
water vapor monitoring will be given in a
forthcoming study.
6 GPS clock error correction
The Selective Availability (SA) mode of the GPS
system was terminated on 04:05 UTC May 2, 2001.
This event had significant consequences for the
CHAMP experiment.
The presence of SA was the main reason for
applying the double difference technique within the
GPS/MET data analysis to correct for clock errors
[Rocken et al., 1997]. The use of this technique
requires measurements of a global distributed GPS
ground network.
Due to SA GPS transmitter clocks varied by tens
of meters over timescales of 100 s (rates in the
dimension of ~1 m/s). However, clock rates on the
order of < 1 mm/s are required to reach sub-Kelvin
accuracy at heights of about 30 km [Wickert et al.,
2001a]. Termination of SA reduced these clock
rates by orders of magnitude making the clocks
more predictable [Zumberge and Gendt, 2001;
Neilan et al., 2000]. This made the application of a
single differencing technique possible.
We applied a single differencing technique on the
derivation of an individual atmospheric profile
(April 20, 2001; occultation no. 6). The GPS clock
error correction was performed by interpolating
5 min GPS clock solutions provided by GFZ’s orbit
determination facility. No additional GPS ground
station data were used for the processing.
The profile was also derived applying double
difference technique using GPS data from the
Fairbanks ground station (64.98°N, 147.50°W).
Both profiles and corresponding ECMWF data are
shown Fig. 5. In addition the deviation between the
CHAMP profiles is plotted. The temperature
difference between the profiles is less than 0.1 K
below 20 km and <0.5 K below 35 km. This result
indicates, that after termination of SA single
difference processing of GPS occultation data
yields nearly identical results compared to double
difference processing. Similar results were found
by Hajj et al. [2001] for individual profiles.
Statistical comparisons of both processing methods
are necessary to verify this result [Wickert et al.,
2002].
Fig. 6: Comparison of vertical temperature profiles (April 20,
2001, occultation no. 6, 00:33 UTC, 58,8°N, 4,3°E) with
ECMWF analyses. The measurement were analysed using the
double difference (left) and single difference method
(middle). The right figure shows the difference between the
profiles.
7 Summary
First results of the GPS radio occultation experiment
onboard the German CHAMP satellite have been
presented. Between February and July 2001 about
16,000 occultations were recorded. About 80% of
these measurements were successfully processed to
derive globally distributed vertical atmospheric
profiles. It was found that the occultations have a
nonuniform distribution. Maximum density of
occultations is found at polar regions, whereas
minimum density was observed for equatorial
region. The longitudinal distribution of the
occultations is more regular. A statistical
comparison between CHAMP and ECMWF dry
temperature profiles shows excellent agreement in
the Northern and Southern hemisphere with
deviations of less 0.5 K in mean and 1 K in standard
deviation between 12 and 25 km altitude. The
agreement at low latitudes is worse. Mean
deviations up to 2 K (at 8 km) in mean and 3 K (at
8 km) in standard deviation were found.
A single difference technique was applied for the
occultation processing and compared to the double
difference technique for an individual profile. Below
20 km the deviation between both profiles is less
than 0.1 K, below 35 km a maximum deviation of
0.5 K was found.
First results of the GPS radio occultation
experiment onboard CHAMP indicate a successful
start for a further enhancement of the GPS radio
occultation technique by analyzing the CHAMP
measurements. During the course of the mission the
GPS radio occultation with CHAMP: First results and status of the experiment
Wickert et al., Proc. IAG 2001 Scientific Assembly, 2-8 September 2001, Budapest, Hungary, Springer Series
results will be validated using more extended
statistical investigations.
Acknowledgements: We thank H. van der Marel and one
anonymous reviewer for careful and constructive review of
our paper. The authors are grateful to the colleagues at JPL,
in particular T. Meehan, G. A. Hajj, T. Mannucci and T. P.
Yunck for successful cooperation within the CHAMP
occultation experiment. We thank our colleagues from
UCAR for making high quality GPS/MET data available for
preparation the CHAMP occultation processing. We
gratefully acknowledge stimulating discussion with G.
Gendt, N. Jakowski, G. Kirchengast, K. Hocke, S.
Syndergaard, A. Wehrenpfennig, R. König and Sh. Ge. The
German Weather Service (DWD) provided ECMWF
analysis via the Stratospheric Research Group, Berlin. We
thank K. Labitzke and K. Schulz-Schöllhammer for the
ECMWF data preparation.
This study was carried out under BMBF grant 01SF9922/2.
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