GPS Tropospheric Water Vapor for Precipitation Forecasting in Mountain Regions: the Case of Ecuadorian Andes
Abstract
Rain modeling and forecasting are challenging tasks, even more, into the stepped zones of the tropical Andes. New statistical relationships between the tropospheric delay of the Global Positioning System - GPS signal and rain have been reported. GPS zenith tropospheric delay ZTD occurs due to the presence of tropospheric water vapor content, which can be related to rain intensity. Literature reports ZTD and rain relationships with several hours of anticipation over flat regions, and exponential dependence of maximum rain rates with tropospheric water vapor over the ocean. Therefore, the objective of this investigation is to determine the predictive potential of ZTD for rainfall intensity over the highly complex terrain in the Andes of Ecuador. The study area covers the catchment where the Antisana volcano (5,704 masl) is located at. Data from Geodetic GPS network of Geophysical Institute of Ecuador is available for 2014 every 30 minutes, and meteorological data from EPN-IRD-INAMHI network on a 5 minutes basis. ZTD processing was conveyed using GAMIT software. Preliminary results point to the plausibility of quantifiable causality between the ZTD peaks and rain intensity. These results are useful for improving rainfall modeling and forecasting in mountain regions, which is especially valuable due to the limitations of regional climate models to date.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.A21U2679C
- Keywords:
-
- 3305 Climate change and variability;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3322 Land/atmosphere interactions;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 0736 Snow;
- CRYOSPHERE;
- 1833 Hydroclimatology;
- HYDROLOGY