a Study of Gnss Water Vapor Reconstruction Parameters
Abstract
GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) observations are nowadays a well-established tool to measure the water vapor content in the atmosphere. This gas plays a major role in many processes concerning physics, thermodynamics and dynamics of the atmosphere. The knowledge of the spatial and temporal distribution of water vapor in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) is crucial for accurate quantitative prediction of precipitation and better understanding of many atmospheric processes like deep convective events. Major advantages of the use of GNSS observations are all-weather system, continuous unattended operation, high temporal resolution and an ever-increasing number of stations. The present work focuses on the study of the geometry and dynamics of moist convection, shallow and deep, through the use of 4D images of the atmosphere water vapor field, obtained from high-density GPS networks (i.e. tomographic inversion). For this, the SWART (SEGAL GNSS WAter Vapor ReconsTruction Image Software), a software package for GNSS water vapor reconstruction, has been developed. This package currently consists of four C++ programs. The C++ programs gather the necessary information to calculate the slant delays and to generate a file with the reconstructed image. The output consists in 2D slices of the 3D water vapor image in latitude, longitude or altitude. SWART is based on LOFTT_K (LOgiciel Français de Tomographie Troposphérique version Kalman) (Champollion 2005). We present the results of the comparison with LOFTT_K to validate SWART together with several tests covering diverse grid sizes and different number of receivers for the same water vapor image reconstruction. It is also analyzed the importance of the initial values for the image reconstruction. All these tests were realized with synthetic data, except for the grid area, which is from Marseilles, France. Finally, we present the current status of the analysis being carrying out for a dense network in Belem, Brazil which data was acquired in the framework of the project CHUVA during September, 2011. This work is being carried out in the framework of the SMOG (PTDC/CTE-ATM/119922/2010) project funded by FCT. References: Champollion C., 2005: Quantification de la vapeur d'eau troposphérique par GPS (modèle 2D et tomographie 3D) - Application aux précipitations intenses. Thèse de doctorat, Laboratoire de Dynamique de la Lithosphère (Université Montpellier II).
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFM.G52A..07S
- Keywords:
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- 1220 GEODESY AND GRAVITY Atmosphere monitoring with geodetic techniques