The CHAMP data base at GFZ Potsdam

CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload) was a German small satellite mission for geoscientific and atmospheric research and applications, managed by GFZ. With its highly precise, multifunctional and complementary payload elements (magnetometer, accelerometer, star sensor, GPS receiver, laser retro reflector, ion drift meter) and its orbit characteristics (near polar, low altitude, long duration) CHAMP  allowed for the first time to generate simultaneously highly precise gravity and magnetic field measurements over a 10 years period. This allowed to detect besides the spatial variations of both fields as well as their variability with time. The CHAMP mission had opened a new era in geopotential research and had become a significant contributor to the Decade of Geopotentials.

In addition with the radio occultation measurements onboard the spacecraft and the infrastructure developed on ground, CHAMP had become a pilot mission for the pre-operational use of space-borne GPS observations for atmospheric and ionospheric research and applications in weather prediction and space weather monitoring.

CHAMP was launched at July 15, 2000. End of the mission of CHAMP was at September 19 2010, after ten years, two month and four days, after 58277 orbit revolutions.

The CHAMP ISDC Data Base is GFZ's complete archive of all CHAMP user data products. Part of these data are freely available on an anonymous Ftp server via  "Access to the CHAMP data".