Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Ionospheric GPS radio occultation measurements on board CHAMP

  • Original Article
  • Published:
GPS Solutions Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The GPS radio occultation technique is a rather simple and inexpensive tool for getting information about the global characteristics of the vertical electron density distribution. No other ionospheric sounding technique (bottomside/topside vertical sounding, incoherent scatter) unifies vertical profiling through the entire ionosphere with global coverage. The paper addresses retrieval methods and algorithms applied for the generation of operational products including their limitations in accuracy and spatial resolution. Preliminary results of ionospheric radio occultation (IRO) measurements carried out onboard the German CHAMP satellite are reported. The achieved accuracy of the retrieved electron density profiles (EDPs) is estimated in particular by comparing the IRO results with independent vertical sounding data from European stations. It is concluded that CHAMP-IRO measurements have the potential to establish global data sets of EDPs, contribute to ionospheric research, develop and improve global ionospheric models and to provide operational space weather information.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Hajj GA, Romans LJ (1998) Ionospheric electron density profiles obtained with the global positioning system: results from the GPS/MET experiment. Radio Sci 33:175–190

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heise S, Jakowski N, Wehrenpfennig A, Reigber C, Luehr H (2002) Sounding of the topside ionosphere/plasmasphere based on GPS measurements from CHAMP: Initial results. Geophys Res Lett 29(14), doi: 10.1029/2002GL014738.

  • Jakowski N (1999) Capabilities of radio occultation measurements onboard LEO satellites for ionospheric monitoring and research. In: Vernon A (eds) Proceedings of 4th COST 251 workshop “the impact of the upper atmosphere on terrestrial and Earth–space communications” 22–25 March, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, pp 116–121

  • Jakowski N, Tsybulya K (2003) Ionospheric radio occultation measurements on CHAMP compared with IRI 2001, IRI News, 10, Nr 1, 2, 4–7

  • Jakowski N, Wehrenpfennig A, Heise S, Reigber C, Luehr H, Grunwaldt L, Meehan T (2002) GPS Radio occultation measurements of the ionosphere from CHAMP: early results. Geophys Res Lett 29(10), doi: 10.1029/2001GL014364

  • Kursinski ER, Hajj GA, Schofield JT, Linfield RP, Hardy KR (1997) Observing Earth’s atmosphere with radio occultation measurements using the global positioning system. J Geophys Res 102, D19, 23, 429–23, 465

    Google Scholar 

  • Reigber C, Luehr H, Schwintzer P (2000) CHAMP mission status and perspectives, Suppl. to EOS, Transactions, AGU, 81, 48, F307

  • Reinisch BW, Huang X (2001) Deducing topside profiles and total electron content from bottomside ionograms. Adv Space Res 27(1):23–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spalla P, Jakowski N, Wehrenpfennig A, Spencer PS, Mitchell CN (2003) Verification of CHAMP radio occultation observations in the ionosphere using MIDAS. In: Reigber CH, Luehr H, Schwintzer p (eds) First CHAMP science mission results for gravity, magnetic and atmospheric studies. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg New York, ISBN 3-540-00206-5, 545–550

  • Stankov SM, Jakowski N (2004) Topside plasma scale height based on CHAMP measurements: first results. In: Reigber C, Lühr H, Schwintzer P, Wickert J (eds) Earth Observation with CHAMP, results from three years in orbit. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp 459–464

    Google Scholar 

  • Stankov SM, Jakowski N, Heise H, Muhtarov P, Kutiev I, Warnant R (2003) A new method for reconstruction of the vertical electron density distribution in the upper ionosphere and plasmasphere, J Geophys Res 108(A5):1164, doi: 10.1029/2002JA009570

    Google Scholar 

  • Stolle C, Jakowski N, Schlegel K, Rietveld M (2004) Comparison of high latitude electron density profiles obtained with the GPS radio occultation technique and EISCAT measurements. Ann Geophys 22(6):2015–2028

    Google Scholar 

  • Wehrenpfennig A, Jakowski N, Wickert J (2001) A dynamically configurable system for operational processing of space weather data. Phys Chem Earth 26:601–604

    Google Scholar 

  • Wickert J, Reigber C, Beyerle G, König R, Marquardt C, Schmidt T, Grunwaldt L, Galas R, Meehan T, Melbourne WG, Hocke K (2001) Atmosphere sounding by GPS radio occultation: first results from CHAMP. Geophys Res Lett 28:3263–3266

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The author is very grateful to all the colleagues from the international CHAMP team for maintaining CHAMP operation so well and thanks Jens Mielich (IAP, Germany) for providing vertical sounding data for comparison. I thank the reviewers C.N. Mitchell and R. Leitinger for valuable comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), Institut für Kommunikation und Navigation (IKN), Kalkhorstweg 53, 17235, Neustrelitz, Germany

    N. Jakowski

Authors
  1. N. Jakowski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to N. Jakowski.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jakowski, N. Ionospheric GPS radio occultation measurements on board CHAMP. GPS Solut 9, 88–95 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-005-0137-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-005-0137-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation