Identification

Title

Application of principal component analysis to CHAMP radio occultation data for quality control and a diagnostic study

Abstract

A principal component analysis (PCA) method is applied to Challenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) level-2 radio occultation (RO) observations and the corresponding global analyses from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) in March 2004. The PCA is performed on a square symmetric vertical correlation matrix of observed or modeled RO profiles. By decomposing the matrix into pairs of loadings (EOFs) and associated principal components (PCs), outliers are identified and important modes that explain most variances of the vertical variability of the atmosphere as represented by the GPS RO data and the NCEP analyses are extracted and compared. Specifically, a quality control of RO data based on Hotelling's T-2 index is applied first, which removes 255 RO profiles from 4884 total profiles (about 5%) and smoothes the distributions of PC modes, making the remaining GPS RO dataset much more meaningful. The leading PC mode for global refractivity explains 60% of the total variance and is associated with a symmetric zonal pattern, with positive anomalies in the Tropics and negative anomalies at the two poles. The second PC mode explains an additional 16% of the total variance and shows a dipole pattern with positive anomalies in the North Pole and negative anomalies in the South Pole. Three significant positive anomalies are also found in the second and third PC modes over three predominant convective areas in the western Pacific, South America. and Africa in the Tropics. The first leading PC mode calculated from global NCEP analyses compared favorably with that from CHAMP observations, which proves that NCEP analyses are capable of representing most of the variance of the atmospheric profiles. However, disagreements between CHAMP observations and NCEP analyses are noticed in the second EOF over the Tropics and the Southern Hemisphere (SH). It is also found that the NCEP analyses describe CHAMP-observed larger vertical scale features better than smaller-scale features, captures features of more leading EOF modes in the Northern Hemisphere than in the SH and the Tropics, and does not capture the vertical structures revealed by the EOFs in CHAMP observations near and above the tropopause in the Tropics.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d70k2d5z

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

2006-11-01T00:00:00Z

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