scholarly journals Constructing Precipitable Water Vapor Map from Regional GNSS Network Observations without Collocated Meteorological Data

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biyan Chen ◽  
Wujiao Dai ◽  
Zhizhao Liu ◽  
Lixin Wu ◽  
Cuilin Kuang ◽  
...  

Abstract. Surface pressure (Ps) and weighted mean temperature (Tm) are two necessary variables for the accurate retrieval of precipitable water vapor (PWV) from global navigation satellite system (GNSS) data. The lack of Ps or Tm information is a concern for those GNSS sites that are not collocated with meteorological sensors. This paper investigates an alternative method of inferring accurate Ps and Tm at the GNSS station using nearby synoptic observations. Ps and Tm obtained at the nearby synoptic sites are interpolated onto the location of GNSS station by performing both vertical and horizontal adjustments, in which the parameters involved in Ps and Tm calculation are estimated from ERA-Interim reanalysis profiles. In addition, we present a method of constructing high quality PWV map through vertical reduction and horizontal interpolation of the retrieved GNSS PWVs. To evaluate the performances of the Ps and Tm retrieval and the PWV map construction, GNSS data collected from 58 stations of the Hunan GNSS network and synoptic observations from 20 nearby sites in 2015 were processed to extract the PWV so as to subsequently generate PWV map. The retrieved Ps and Tm and constructed PWV maps were assessed by the results derived from radiosonde and ERA-Interim reanalysis. The results show that (1) accuracies of Ps and Tm derived by synoptic interpolation are within the range of 1.7–3.0 hPa and 2.5–3.0 K, respectively, which are much better than the GPT2w model; (2) the constructed PWV maps have good agreements with radiosonde and ERA reanalysis data with overall accuracy better than 3 mm; and (3) PWV maps can well reveal the moisture advection, transportation and convergence during heavy rainfall.

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 5153-5166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biyan Chen ◽  
Wujiao Dai ◽  
Zhizhao Liu ◽  
Lixin Wu ◽  
Cuilin Kuang ◽  
...  

Abstract. Surface pressure (Ps) and weighted mean temperature (Tm) are two necessary variables for the accurate retrieval of precipitable water vapor (PWV) from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) zenith total delay (ZTD) estimates. The lack of Ps or Tm information is a concern for those GNSS sites that are not collocated with meteorological sensors. This paper investigates an alternative method of inferring accurate Ps and Tm at the GNSS station using nearby synoptic observations. Ps and Tm obtained at the nearby synoptic sites are interpolated onto the location of the GNSS station by performing both vertical and horizontal adjustments, in which the parameters involved in Ps and Tm calculation are estimated from ERA-Interim reanalysis profiles. In addition, we present a method of constructing high-quality PWV maps through vertical reduction and horizontal interpolation of the retrieved GNSS PWVs. To evaluate the performances of the Ps and Tm retrieval, and the PWV map construction, GNSS data collected from 58 stations of the Hunan GNSS network and synoptic observations from 20 nearby sites in 2015 were processed to extract the PWV so as to subsequently generate the PWV maps. The retrieved Ps and Tm and constructed PWV maps were assessed by the results derived from radiosonde and the ERA-Interim reanalysis. The results show that (1) accuracies of Ps and Tm derived by synoptic interpolation are within the range of 1.7–3.0 hPa and 2.5–3.0 K, respectively, which are much better than the GPT2w model; (2) the constructed PWV maps have good agreements with radiosonde and ERA-Interim reanalysis data with the overall accuracy being better than 3 mm; and (3) PWV maps can well reveal the moisture advection, transportation and convergence during heavy rainfall.


Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (24) ◽  
pp. 5566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingzhi Zhao ◽  
Xiongwei Ma ◽  
Wanqiang Yao ◽  
Yang Liu ◽  
Zheng Du ◽  
...  

Standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) is an acknowledged drought monitoring index, and the evapotranspiration (ET) used to calculated SPEI is obtained based on the Thornthwaite (TH) model. However, the SPEI calculated based on the TH model is overestimated globally, whereas the more accurate ET derived from the Penman–Monteith (PM) model recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is unavailable due to the lack of a large amount of meteorological data at most places. Therefore, how to improve the accuracy of ET calculated by the TH model becomes the focus of this study. Here, a revised TH (RTH) model is proposed using the temperature (T) and precipitable water vapor (PWV) data. The T and PWV data are derived from the reanalysis data and the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) observation, respectively. The initial value of ET for the RTH model is calculated based on the TH model, and the time series of ET residual between the TH and PM models is then obtained. Analyzed results reveal that ET residual is highly correlated with PWV and T, and the correlate coefficient between PWV and ET is −0.66, while that between T and ET for cases of T larger or less than 0 °C are −0.54 and 0.59, respectively. Therefore, a linear model between ET residual and PWV/T is established, and the ET value of the RTH model can be obtained by combining the TH-derived ET and estimated ET residual. Finally, the SPEI calculated based on the RTH model can be obtained and compared with that derived using PM and TH models. Result in the Loess Plateau (LP) region reveals the good performance of the RTH-based SPEI when compared with the TH-based SPEI over the period of 1979–2016. A case analysis in April 2013 over the LP region also indicates the superiority of the RTH-based SPEI at 88 meteorological and 31 GNSS stations when the PM-based SPEI is considered as the reference.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2179
Author(s):  
Pedro Mateus ◽  
Virgílio B. Mendes ◽  
Sandra M. Plecha

The neutral atmospheric delay is one of the major error sources in Space Geodesy techniques such as Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), and its modeling for high accuracy applications can be challenging. Improving the modeling of the atmospheric delays (hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic) also leads to a more accurate and precise precipitable water vapor estimation (PWV), mostly in real-time applications, where models play an important role, since numerical weather prediction models cannot be used for real-time processing or forecasting. This study developed an improved version of the Hourly Global Pressure and Temperature (HGPT) model, the HGPT2. It is based on 20 years of ERA5 reanalysis data at full spatial (0.25° × 0.25°) and temporal resolution (1-h). Apart from surface air temperature, surface pressure, zenith hydrostatic delay, and weighted mean temperature, the updated model also provides information regarding the relative humidity, zenith non-hydrostatic delay, and precipitable water vapor. The HGPT2 is based on the time-segmentation concept and uses the annual, semi-annual, and quarterly periodicities to calculate the relative humidity anywhere on the Earth’s surface. Data from 282 moisture sensors located close to GNSS stations during 1 year (2020) were used to assess the model coefficients. The HGPT2 meteorological parameters were used to process 35 GNSS sites belonging to the International GNSS Service (IGS) using the GAMIT/GLOBK software package. Results show a decreased root-mean-square error (RMSE) and bias values relative to the most used zenith delay models, with a significant impact on the height component. The HGPT2 was developed to be applied in the most diverse areas that can significantly benefit from an ERA5 full-resolution model.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syachrul Arief

<p>The huge amount of water vapor in the atmosphere caused disastrous heavy rain and floods in early July 2018 in SW Japan. Here I present a comprehensive space geodetic study of water brought by this heavy rain done by using a dense network of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers. </p><p>First, I reconstruct sea level precipitable water vapor above land region on the heavy rain. The total amount of water vapor derived by spatially integrating precipitable water vapor on land was ~25.8 Gt, which corresponds to the bucket size to carry water from ocean to land. I then compiled the precipitation measured with a rain radar network. The data showed the total precipitation by this heavy rain as ~22.11 Gt.</p><p>Next, I studied the crustal subsidence caused by the rainwater as the surface load. The GNSS stations located under the heavy rain area temporarily subsided 1-2 centimeters and the subsidence mostly recovered in a day. Using such vertical crustal movement data, I estimated the distribution of surface water in SW Japan. </p><p>The total amount of the estimated water load on 6 July 2018 was ~68.2 Gt, which significantly exceeds the cumulative on-land rainfalls of the heavy rain day from radar rain gauge analyzed precipitation data. I consider that such an amplification of subsidence originates from the selective deployment of GNSS stations in the concave places, e.g. along valleys and within basins, in the mountainous Japanese Islands.</p>


Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Liu ◽  
Nanshan Zheng ◽  
Kefei Zhang ◽  
Junyu Liu

Abstract: The objective of the study was to put forth an interpolation method (the LZ method) for refining the GNSS-derived precipitable water vapor (PWV) map. We established a regional weighted mean temperature (Tm) model for this experiment, which introduced a minor difference into the resultant GNSS-derived PWV compared to the previous Tm models. The kernel of the LZ method consists of increasing the sample density via the virtual sample points. These virtual sample points originated from the digital elevation model (DEM) were constructed on the basis of the statistically significant correlation between PWV and geographical location (i.e., geographical coordinates and elevation). The LZ method was validated and compared to the conventional interpolation approach only accounting for the original sample points. The results reflect that the PWV maps generated by the LZ method showed more details than through conventional one. In addition, the prediction performance of the LZ method was better than that of the conventional method by using cross-validation.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoming Wang ◽  
Kefei Zhang ◽  
Suqin Wu ◽  
Changyong He ◽  
Yingyan Cheng ◽  
...  

Abstract. Surface pressure is a vital meteorological variable for the accurate determination of precipitable water vapor (PWV) using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). The lack of pressure observations is a big issue for the study of climate using historical GNSS observations, which is a relatively new area of GNSS applications in climatology. Hence the use of the surface pressure derived from either an empirical model (e.g. Global Pressure and Temperature 2 wet, GPT2w) or a global atmospheric reanalysis (e.g. ERA-Interim) becomes an important alternative solution. In this study, pressure derived from these two methods is compared against the pressure observed at 108 global GNSS stations for the period 2000–2013. Results show that a good accuracy is achieved from the GPT2w-derived pressure in the latitude band of −30 to 30° and the average value of Root-Mean-Square (RMS) errors across all the stations in this region is 2.4 mb. Correspondingly, an error of 5.6 mm and 1.0 mm in its resultant zenith hydrostatic delay (ZHD) and PWV is expected. In addition, GPT2w-derived pressure usually has a larger error in the cold season due to large diurnal ranges, which is not considered in the GPT2w model. The average value of the RMS errors of the ERA-Interim-derived pressure across all the 108 stations is 1.1 mb, which will lead to an equivalent error of 2.5 mm and 0.4 mm in its resultant ZHD and PWV respectively. Our research also indicates that the ERA-Interim-derived pressure has the potential to be used as a useful meteorological data source to obtain high accuracy PWV on a global scale for climate studies and the GPT2w-derived pressure can be potentially used for climatology as well although it may be only suitable for the tropical regions.


Author(s):  
Z. X. Chen ◽  
L. L. Liu ◽  
L. K. Huang ◽  
Q. T. Wan ◽  
X. Q. Mo

Abstract. The tropospheric weighted mean temperature (Tm) is one of the key characteristic parameters in the troposphere, which plays an important role in the conversion of Zenith Wet Delay (ZWD) to atmospheric Precipitable Water Vapor (PWV). The precision of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) inversion of PWV can be significantly improved with the accurate calculation of Tm. Due to the strong nonlinear mapping ability of Back Propagation (BP) neural network, the algorithm can be used to excavate the law with massive data. In term of the nonlinear and non-stationary characteristics of GNSS precipitable water vapor, in this paper, we proposes a forecast method of GNSS precipitable water vapor based on BP neural network, which can modelling the weighted mean temperature of troposphere. The traditional BP neural network has some shortcomings, such as large amount of calculation, long training time and easy to appear “over-fitting” phenomenon and so on. In order to optimize the deficiency and numerical simulation, the three characteristic values include water vapor pressure, surface pressure and surface temperature provided are selected as input parameters, named as BP_Tm. The optimal initialization parameters of the model were obtained from the 2016 radiosonde data of 89 radiosonde stations in China, and the modeling and accuracy verification were conducted with the 2017 radiosonde data,and the accuracy of the new model was compared with the common regional Tm model. The results show the BP_Tm model has good simulation accuracy, the average deviation is −0.186K, and the root mean square error is 3.144K. When simulating the weighted mean temperature of a single station, the accuracy of the four models to simulate Tm is compared and analyzed, which the BP_Tm model can obtain good accuracy and reflect better stability and reliability.


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