Identification

Title

Comparison of GPS radio occultation soundings with radiosondes

Abstract

The radio occultation (RO) sounding technique that uses signals transmitted by the Global Positioning System (GPS) has evolved as an important global observing technology. In this paper, we compare RO refractivity profiles from the CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload) satellite mission with those calculated from radiosonde soundings over five geographical areas, each of which uses a different type of radiosonde. CHAMP RO soundings that occur within 2 hours and 300 km of radiosonde soundings are used during the period from June 2001 through March 2004. The comparison was made between the altitudes of 5 - 25 km, where RO soundings are most accurate. These results indicate that the RO soundings are of sufficiently high accuracy to differentiate performance of various types of radiosonde. The differences in performance among various types of radiosonde present a challenge for climate analysis. In this regard, RO is a considerably more robust measurement technique for climate monitoring.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7fx7bqp

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2005-03-12T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact