Abstract

In this paper an overview of the temperature structure in the tropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) region is given using Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation (RO) data from the German CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload) satellite mission. Several climatologies for tropopause parameters based on radiosonde data and model analyzes have been published in recent years. Both the data sources suffer either to less global coverage or low vertical resolution. This fault can be overcome by the GPS RO technique due to its global coverage, high vertical resolution, all-weather viewing, and long-term stability. CHAMP RO data are available since 2001 with up to 200 high resolution temperature profiles per day. Using CHAMP RO data during May 2001-September 2003, the structure and variability of the tropical tropopause is presented.

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