Modelling Precipitable Water Vapour (PWV) Over Nigeria from Ground-Based GNSS

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-50
Author(s):  
Bawa Swafiyudeen ◽  
Usman Ibrahim Sa'i ◽  
Bala Adamu ◽  
Abubakar Aliyu Zailani ◽  
Adamu Abubakar Musa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapour ◽  
Weather Forecasting ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Temporal Correlation ◽  
Precipitable Water ◽  
Satellite System ◽  
Spatiotemporal Variability ◽  
Precipitable Water Vapour ◽  
Water Vapour Content ◽  
Environmental Prediction

Global Navigational Satellite System (GNSS) over the past and present time has shown a great potential in the retrieval of the distribution of water vapour in the atmosphere.  Taking the advantage of the effect of the atmosphere on GNSS signal as they travel from the constellation of satellite to ground-based GNSS receivers such that information (water vapour content) about the atmosphere (mostly from the troposphere) can be derived is referred to as GNSS meteorology. This paper presents the spatiotemporal variability of Precipitable Water Vapour (PWV) retrieved from ground–based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations over Nigeria for the years 2012 to 2013. In this paper, the GNSS data were processed using GAMIT (ver. 10.70). The GNSS PWV were grouped into daily and monthly averages; the variability of the daily and monthly GNSS PWV were compared and validated with the daily and monthly PWV from National Centre for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and monthly Rainfall data for the study years respectively. The results revealed that the spatiotemporal variability of PWV across Nigeria is a function of geographic location and seasons. The result shows that there is temporal correlation between GNSS PWV, NCEP PWV and rainfall events. The research also affirms that GNSS PWV could be used to improve weather forecasting/monitoring as well as climate monitoring.

scholarly journals Water Vapour Assessment Using GNSS and Radiosondes over Polar Regions and Estimation of Climatological Trends from Long-Term Time Series Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 4871
Author(s):  
Monia Negusini ◽  
Boyan H. Petkov ◽  
Vincenza Tornatore ◽  
Stefano Barindelli ◽  
Leonardo Martelli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapour ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Arctic Region ◽  
Precipitable Water ◽  
Satellite System ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Precipitable Water Vapour ◽  
Water Vapour Content

The atmospheric humidity in the Polar Regions is an important factor for the global budget of water vapour, which is a significant indicator of Earth’s climate state and evolution. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) can make a valuable contribution in the calculation of the amount of Precipitable Water Vapour (PW). The PW values retrieved from Global Positioning System (GPS), hereafter PWGPS, refer to 20-year observations acquired by more than 40 GNSS geodetic stations located in the polar regions. For GNSS stations co-located with radio-sounding stations (RS), which operate Vaisala radiosondes, we estimated the PW from RS observations (PWRS). The PW values from the ERA-Interim global atmospheric reanalysis were used for validation and comparison of the results for all the selected GPS and RS stations. The correlation coefficients between times series are very high: 0.96 for RS and GPS, 0.98 for RS and ERA in the Arctic; 0.89 for RS and GPS, 0.97 for RS and ERA in Antarctica. The Root-Mean-Square of the Error (RMSE) is 0.9 mm on average for both RS vs. GPS and RS vs. ERA in the Arctic, and 0.6 mm for RS vs. GPS and 0.4 mm for RS vs. ERA in Antarctica. After validation, long-term trends, both for Arctic and Antarctic regions, were estimated using Hector scientific software. Positive PWGPS trends dominate at Arctic sites near the borders of the Atlantic Ocean. Sites located at higher latitudes show no significant values (at 1σ level). Negative PWGPS trends were observed in the Arctic region of Greenland and North America. A similar behaviour was found in the Arctic for PWRS trends. The stations in the West Antarctic sector show a general positive PWGPS trend, while the sites on the coastal area of East Antarctica exhibit some significant negative PWGPS trends, but in most cases, no significant PWRS trends were found. The present work confirms that GPS is able to provide reliable estimates of water vapour content in Arctic and Antarctic regions too, where data are sparse and not easy to collect. These preliminary results can give a valid contribution to climate change studies.

scholarly journals Comparison of GNSS and INSAT-3D sounder retrieved precipitable water vapour and validation with the GPS Sonde data over Indian Subcontinent

MAUSAM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
YADAV RAMASHRAY ◽  
PUVIARASAN N ◽  
GIRI R K ◽  
TOMAR C S ◽  
SINGH VIRENDRA
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapour ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
India Meteorological Department ◽  
Precipitable Water ◽  
Satellite System ◽  
Atmospheric Water ◽  
Precipitable Water Vapour ◽  
Vertical Column ◽  
Atmospheric Water Vapour ◽  
Channel Sounder

Precipitable water vapour (PWV) plays a key role in the atmospheric processes from climate change to micrometeorology. Its distribution and quantity are critical for the description of state and evaluation of the atmosphere in NWP model. Lack of precise and continuous water vapour data is one of the major error sources in short term forecast of precipitation. The task of accurately measuring atmospheric water vapour is challenging. Conventional in situ measurements of atmospheric water vapour is provided by GPS Sonde humidity sensors profile twice a day at 0000 and 1200 UTC mainly from limited land regions. In recent years India Meteorological Department (IMD) is computing PWV from 19 channel sounder of INSAT-3D in three layers 1000-900 hPa, 900-700 hPa and 700-300 hPa and total PWV in the vertical column of atmosphere stretching from surface to about 100 hPa under cloud free condition. These data most commonly were validated using spatially and temporally collocated GPS Sonde measurements. In this paper, INSAT-3D satellite retrieved PWV data are validated with column integrated PWV estimates from a network of ground based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) over Indian subcontinent. The PWV retrieved by INSAT-3D sounder platform is very promising, being in a good agreement with the GNSS data recorded over India for the period June, 2017 to May, 2018. The root-mean-square (rms) differences of 5.4 to 7.1 mm, bias of -4.7 to +2.1 mm and correlations coefficient of 0.79 to 0.92 was observed between INSAT-3D and GNSS PWV. The correlations coefficient between GPS Sonde and GNSS derived PWV ranges from 0.85 to 0.98.

scholarly journals Potential of INSAT-3D sounder-derived total precipitable water product for weather forecast

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 6003-6012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shailesh Parihar ◽  
Ashim Kumar Mitra ◽  
Mrutyunjay Mohapatra ◽  
Rajjev Bhatla
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapour ◽  
Weather Forecasting ◽  
Meteorological Data ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
India Meteorological Department ◽  
Precipitable Water ◽  
Weather Forecast ◽  
Satellite System ◽  
Total Precipitable Water

Abstract. The objectives of the INSAT-3D satellite are to enhance the meteorological observations and to monitor the Earth's surface for weather forecasting and disaster warning. One of the weather-monitoring capabilities of the INSAT-3D sounder is the estimation of water vapour in the atmosphere. The amount of water vapour present in the atmospheric column is derived as the total precipitable water (TPW) product from the infrared radiances measured by the INSAT-3D sounder. The present study is based on TPW derived from INSAT-3D sounder, radiosonde (RS) observations and the corresponding National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite. To assess retrieval performances of INSAT-3D sounder-derived TPW, RS TPW observations are considered for the validation from May to September 2016 from 34 stations belonging to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The analysis is performed on daily, monthly, and subdivisional bases over the Indian region. The comparison of INSAT-3D TPW with RS TPW on daily and monthly bases shows that the root mean square error (RMSE) and correlation coefficients (CC) are ∼8 mm and 0.8, respectively. However, on subdivisional and overall scales, the RMSE found to be in the range of 1 to 2 mm and CC was around 0.9 in comparison with RS and NOAA. The spatial distribution of INSAT-3D TPW with actual rainfall observation is also investigated. In general, INSAT-3D TPW corresponds well with rainfall observation; however, it has found that heavy rainfall events occur in the presence of high TPW values. In addition, the cases of thunderstorm events were assessed using TPW from INSAT-3D and network of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver. This shows the good agreement between TPW from INSAT-3D and GNSS during the mesoscale activity. The improvement in the estimation of TPW is carried out by applying the GSICS calibration corrections (Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System) to the radiances from infrared (IR) channels of the sounder, which is used by IMDPS (INSAT Meteorological Data Processing System). The current TPW from INSAT-3D satellite can be utilized operationally for weather monitoring and forecast purposes. It can also offer substantial opportunities for improvement in nowcasting studies.

Precipitable water vapour content above the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory from GPS estimations

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. García-Lorenzo ◽  
J. A. Castro-Almazán ◽  
A. Eff-Darwich ◽  
C. Muñoz-Tuñón ◽  
N. Pinilla-Alonso ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapour ◽  
Precipitable Water ◽  
Precipitable Water Vapour ◽  
Water Vapour Content

Diurnal cycle of GNSS-derived precipitable water vapour in tropical regions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zofia Bałdysz ◽  
Grzegorz Nykiel ◽  
Dariusz Baranowski ◽  
Beata Latos ◽  
Mariusz Figurski
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapour ◽  
Diurnal Cycle ◽  
Asian Summer Monsoon ◽  
Precipitable Water ◽  
Tropical Atmosphere ◽  
International Gnss Service ◽  
Precipitable Water Vapour ◽  
Water Vapour Content ◽  
Inter Tropical Convergence Zone ◽  
Tropical Regions

<p>Convective processes in the tropical atmosphere and their diurnal cycles have important repercussions for the circulations in the tropical regions and beyond. Monitoring of the water vapour content in the tropical atmosphere remains a challenge due to its high temporal and spatial variability. Global models tend to fail to correctly capture the diurnal convection, limiting forecasting accuracy. In this work, we investigated precipitable water vapour (PWV) diurnal cycle, precipitation and infrared  brightness temperature (TB) data over the tropical area. We used in-situ observations from 44 IGS (International GNSS Service) stations covering time span of 18 years, together with satellite-based precipitation and cloudiness data, taken from the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission gridded dataset (TRMM 3B42 v7) and the global, merged infrared (IR) dataset, respectively. The data provided an opportunity to examine the characteristics of a diurnal cycle of PWV, precipitation and TB over the study area in greater detail than before.</p><p>In particular, our results show that the diurnal cycle of PWV and TB were almost entirely dominated by mono-modal distributions. The diurnal cycle of precipitation onshore (continental areas or big islands; continental regime) had a single late afternoon peak, and that offshore (small islands; oceanic regime) had both a midday and a nocturnal peak. Daily amplitude phase shift of PWV and precipitation at onshore stations with a continental regime consistently occurred at the same time, while TB maximum peaked about five hours later. Furthermore, results show that the daily mean and the amplitude of the diurnal cycle of PWV, precipitation and TB appeared smaller on offshore stations, exhibited to an oceanic regime, than on onshore, continental stations. Additional analysis of seasonal variations of GNSS-derived PWV shows the usefulness of such measurements for tracking propagation of longer-scale phenomena, such as Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), Southeast Asian monsoon or East Asian summer monsoon.</p>

scholarly journals Forecasting the precipitable water vapour content: validation for astronomical observatories using radiosoundings

2015 ◽  
Vol 452 (2) ◽  
pp. 1992-2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Pérez-Jordán ◽  
J. A. Castro-Almazán ◽  
C. Muñoz-Tuñón ◽  
B. Codina ◽  
J. Vernin
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapour ◽  
Precipitable Water ◽  
Content Validation ◽  
Precipitable Water Vapour ◽  
Water Vapour Content

scholarly journals Infrared and Submillimetre Observing Conditions on the Antarctic Plateau

2000 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 260-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marton G. Hidas ◽  
Michael G. Burton ◽  
Matthew A. Chamberlain ◽  
John W. V. Storey
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapour ◽  
Precipitable Water ◽  
Atmospheric Transmission ◽  
Precipitable Water Vapour ◽  
Water Vapour Content ◽  
Antarctic Plateau ◽  
Near Ir ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Determining Factor

AbstractThe Antarctic Plateau provides the best terrestrial sites for infrared (IR) and submillimetre (sub-mm) astronomy. In this paper we examine the relative importance of temperature, aerosol content and precipitable water vapour to determine which parameters have the greatest influence on atmospheric transmission and sky brightness. We use the atmospheric modelling program MODTRAN to model the observed sky spectrum at the South Pole from the near-IR to the sub-mm. We find that temperature and aerosol content determine the quality of near-IR observing conditions, aerosol content is the determining factor in the mid-IR up to 20 μm, while at longer wavelengths, including the sub-mm, it is the water vapour content that matters. Finding a location where aerosol levels are minimised is a key constraint in determining the optimum site on the Antarctic Plateau for an IR observatory.

scholarly journals A semiempirical error estimation technique for PWV derived from atmospheric radiosonde data

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 4759-4781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julio A. Castro-Almazán ◽  
Gabriel Pérez-Jordán ◽  
Casiana Muñoz-Tuñón
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapour ◽  
Sampling Error ◽  
Precipitable Water ◽  
Semiempirical Method ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Radiosonde Data ◽  
Optimum Number ◽  
Precipitable Water Vapour ◽  
Water Vapour Content ◽  
Covariance Components

Abstract. A semiempirical method for estimating the error and optimum number of sampled levels in precipitable water vapour (PWV) determinations from atmospheric radiosoundings is proposed. Two terms have been considered: the uncertainties in the measurements and the sampling error. Also, the uncertainty has been separated in the variance and covariance components. The sampling and covariance components have been modelled from an empirical dataset of 205 high-vertical-resolution radiosounding profiles, equipped with Vaisala RS80 and RS92 sondes at four different locations: Güímar (GUI) in Tenerife, at sea level, and the astronomical observatory at Roque de los Muchachos (ORM, 2300 m a.s.l.) on La Palma (both on the Canary Islands, Spain), Lindenberg (LIN) in continental Germany, and Ny-Ålesund (NYA) in the Svalbard Islands, within the Arctic Circle. The balloons at the ORM were launched during intensive and unique site-testing runs carried out in 1990 and 1995, while the data for the other sites were obtained from radiosounding stations operating for a period of 1 year (2013–2014). The PWV values ranged between ∼  0.9 and ∼  41 mm. The method sub-samples the profile for error minimization. The result is the minimum error and the optimum number of levels. The results obtained in the four sites studied showed that the ORM is the driest of the four locations and the one with the fastest vertical decay of PWV. The exponential autocorrelation pressure lags ranged from 175 hPa (ORM) to 500 hPa (LIN). The results show a coherent behaviour with no biases as a function of the profile. The final error is roughly proportional to PWV whereas the optimum number of levels (N0) is the reverse. The value of N0 is less than 400 for 77 % of the profiles and the absolute errors are always <  0.6 mm. The median relative error is 2.0 ±  0.7 % and the 90th percentile P90 = 4.6 %. Therefore, whereas a radiosounding samples at least N0 uniform vertical levels, depending on the water vapour content and distribution of the atmosphere, the error in the PWV estimate is likely to stay below ≈  3 %, even for dry conditions.

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