edu.ucar.opensky::articles:12423 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-26T03:48:54.188646 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d74j0fxc Quantification of structural uncertainty in climate data records from GPS radio occultation 2013-02-06T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d74j0fxc https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-1469-2013 Steiner, A. author Hunt, Douglas C. author Ho, Shu-peng author Kirchengast, G. author Mannucci, A. author Scherllin-Pirscher, Barbara author Gleisner, H. author Von Engeln, A. author Schmidt, T. author Ao, C. author Leroy, S. author Kursinski, E. author Foelsche, U. author Gorbunov, M. author Heise, S. author Kuo, Ying-Hwa author Lauritsen, K. author Marquardt, C. author Rocken, Christian author Schreiner, William S. author Sokolovskiy, Sergey author Syndergaard, S. author Wickert, J. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation (RO) has provided continuous observations of the Earth's atmosphere since 2001 with global coverage, all-weather capability, and high accuracy and vertical resolution in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). Precise time measurements enable long-term stability but careful processing is needed. Here we provide climate-oriented atmospheric scientists with multicenter-based results on the long-term stability of RO climatological fields for trend studies. We quantify the structural uncertainty of atmospheric trends estimated from the RO record, which arises from current processing schemes of six international RO processing centers, DMI Copenhagen, EUM Darmstadt, GFZ Potsdam, JPL Pasadena, UCAR Boulder, and WEGC Graz. Monthly-mean zonal-mean fields of bending angle, refractivity, dry pressure, dry geopotential height, and dry temperature from the CHAMP mission are compared for September 2001 to September 2008. We find that structural uncertainty is lowest in the tropics and mid-latitudes (50° S to 50° N) from 8 km to 25 km for all inspected RO variables. In this region, the structural uncertainty in trends over 7 yr is <0.03% for bending angle, refractivity, and pressure, <3 m for geopotential height of pressure levels, and <0.06 K for temperature; low enough for detecting a climate change signal within about a decade. Larger structural uncertainty above about 25 km and at high latitudes is attributable to differences in the processing schemes, which undergo continuous improvements. Though current use of RO for reliable climate trend assessment is bound to 50° S to 50° N, our results show that quality, consistency, and reproducibility are favorable in the UTLS for the establishment of a climate benchmark record. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication Copyright Author(s) 2013. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License None eng geoscientificInformation