The radioholographic method is briefly described and tested by using data o
f 4 radio occultation events observed by the GPS/MET experiment on 9 Februa
ry 1997, The central point of the radioholographic method (Pavelyev, 1998)
is the generation of a radiohologram along the LEO satellite trajectory whi
ch allows the calculation of angular spectra of the received GPS radio wave
field at the LEO satellite. These spectra are promising in view of detecti
on, analysis and reduction of multipath/diffraction effects, study of atmos
pheric irregularities and estimation of bending angle error. Initial analys
is of angular spectra calculated by the multiple signal classification (MUS
IC) method gives evidence that considerable multibeam propagation occurs at
ray perigee heights below 20 km and at heights around 80-120 km for the 4
GPS/MET occultation events. Temperature profiles obtained by our analysis (
radioholographic method, Abel inversion) are compared with those of the tra
ditional retrieval by the UCAR GPS/MET team (bending angle from slope of ph
ase front, Abel inversion). In 3 of 4 cases we found good agreement (standa
rd deviation sigma(T) similar to 1.5 degrees K between both retrievals at h
eights 0-30 km). (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.