[1] The GRACE mission is designed to track changes in the Earth's gravity field for a period of five years. Launched in March 2002, the two GRACE satellites have collected nearly two years of data. A span of data available during the Commissioning Phase was used to obtain initial gravity models. The gravity models developed with this data are more than an order of magnitude better at the long and mid wavelengths than previous models. The error estimates indicate a 2-cm accuracy uniformly over the land and ocean regions, a consequence of the highly accurate, global and homogenous nature of the GRACE data. These early results are a strong affirmation of the GRACE mission concept.

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The paper deals with initial analyzes of radio occultation measurements of the ionosphere carried out on board the CHAMP satellite since 11 April 2001. The accuracy of the operationally retrieved electron density profiles has been estimated by comparing with independent measurements. The derived ionospheric key parameters such as f0F2 and hmF2 agree with a standard deviation of 18 and 13%, respectively. It is shown that the CHAMP data products can essentially contribute to the establishment of operational data sets of the global electron density distribution for developing and improving global ionospheric models and to provide operational space weather information.

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The temperature structure in the tropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) region is discussed based on 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 analyses have been published in recent years. Both data sources suffer either from low global coverage or poor vertical resolution. The GPS RO technique, on the other hand, is characterized by global coverage, high vertical resolution, all‐weather viewing, and long‐term stability. CHAMP RO data are available since February 2001. Since May 2001, up to 200 high‐ resolution temperature profiles per day are available. The temperature bias between CHAMP temperature profiles and radiosonde data as well as ECMWF analyses is less than 0.5 K between 300–30 hPa. On the basis of the May 2001 to November 2003 data set of CHAMP RO data the structure and temporal and spatial variability of the tropical tropopause based on several tropopause definitions (thermal and cold‐point tropopause) are discussed. This includes an overview of the global tropopause characteristics, the discussion of the annual cycle and the latitudinal‐longitudinal structure of the tropical tropopause. In the CHAMP RO temperature data, clear evidence of the stratospheric quasi‐biennial oscillation (QBO) was found. The goal of this study is to show the potential of GPS RO for global monitoring of the temperature demonstrated exemplarily for the tropical UTLS region and based on the first 31 months (as of November 2003) of CHAMP RO data.

Abstract. CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload) and GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) formed a satellite configuration for precise atmospheric sounding during the first activation of the GPS (Global Positioning System) radio occultation experiment aboard GRACE on 28 and 29 July 2004. 338 occultations were recorded aboard both satellites, providing globally distributed vertical profiles of refractivity, temperature and specific humidity. The combined set of CHAMP and GRACE profiles shows excellent agreement with meteorological analysis. Almost no refractivity bias is observed between 5 and 30 km, the standard deviation is between 1 and 2% within this altitude interval. The GRACE satellite clock stability is significantly improved in comparison with CHAMP. This allows for the application of a zero difference technique for precise analysis of the GRACE occultation data.

In order to study both the interplate seismic loading cycle and the distribution of intraplate deformation of the Andes, a 215 site GPS network covering Chile and the western part of Argentina was selected, monumented and observed in 1993 and 1994. A dense part of the network in northern Chile and northwest Argentina, comprising some 70 sites, was re-observed after two years in October/November, 1995. The M w = 8.0 Antofagasta (North Chile) earthquake of 30th July, 1995 took place between the two observations. The city of Antofagasta shifted 80 cm westwards by this event and the displacement still reached 10 cm at locations 300 km from the trench. Three different deformation processes have been considered for modeling the measured displacements: (1) interseismic accumulation of elastic strain due to subduction coupling, (2) coseismic strain release during the Antofagasta earthquake and (3) crustal shortening in the Sub-Andes.Eastward displacement of the sites to the north and to the south of the area affected by the earthquake is due to the interseismic accumulation of elastic deformation. Assuming a uniform slip model of interseismic coupling, the observed displacements at the coast require a fully locked subduction interface and a depth of seismic coupling of 50 km. The geodetically derived fault plane parameters of the Antofagasta earthquake are consistent with results derived from wave-form modeling of seismological data. The coseismic slip predicted by the variable slip model reaches values of 3.2 m in the dip-slip and 1.4 m in the strike-slip directions. The derived rake is 66°. Our geodetic results suggest that the oblique Nazca-South American plate convergence is accommodated by oblique earthquake slip with no slip partitioning. The observed displacements in the back-arc indicate a present-day crustal shortening rate of 3-4 mm/year which is significantly slower than the average of 10 mm/year experienced during the evolution of the Andean plateau.