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J. Wickert

Publications and source records attributed to J. Wickert.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

GPS radio occultation with GRACE: Atmospheric profiling utilizing the zero difference technique

Radio occultation events recorded on 28-29 July 2004 by a GPS receiver aboard the GRACE-B satellite are analyzed. The stability of the receiver clock allows for the derivation of excess phase profiles using a zero difference technique, rendering the calibration procedure with concurrent observations of a reference GPS satellite obsolete. 101 refractivity profiles obtained by zero differencing and 96 profiles calculated with an improved single difference method are compared with co-located ECMWF meteorological analyses. Good agreement is found at altitudes between 5 and 30 km with an average fractional refractivity deviation below 1% and a standard deviation of 2-3%. Results from end-to-end simulations are consistent with these observations.

physics.geo-ph

Global monitoring of tropospheric water vapor with GPS radio occultation aboard CHAMP

The paper deals with application of GPS radio occultation (RO) measurements aboard CHAMP for the retrieval of tropospheric water vapor profiles. The GPS RO technique provides a powerful tool for atmospheric sounding which requires no calibration, is not affected by clouds, aerosols or precipitation, and provides an almost uniform global coverage. We briefly overview data processing and retrieval of vertical refractivity, temperature and water vapor profiles from GPS RO observations. CHAMP RO data are available since 2001 with up to 200 high resolution atmospheric profiles per day. Global validation of CHAMP water vapor profiles with radiosonde data reveals a bias of about 0.2 g/kg and a standard deviation of less than 1 g/kg specific humidity in the lower troposphere. We demonstrate potentials of CHAMP RO retrievals for monitoring the mean tropospheric water vapor distribution on a global scale.

physics.ao-ph