We have reconstructed integrated water vapor (IWV) using the zenith wet delays to track the properties of hurricanes and explore their spatial and temporal distributions estimated from 922 GPS stations. Our results show that a surge in GPS-derived IWV occurred at least six hours prior to the landfall of two major hurricanes (Harvey and Irma) that struck the Gulf and East Coasts of the USA in 2017. We observed enhanced IWV, in particular, for the two hurricanes landfall locations. The observed variations exhibit a correlation with the precipitation value constructed from GPM/IMERG satellite mission coinciding with hurricane storm front passage. We used GPS-IWV data as inputs for spaghetti line plots for our path predictions, helping us predict the paths of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Hence, a directly estimable zenith wet delay sourced from GPS that has not been previously reported can serve as an additional resource for improving the monitoring of hurricane paths.
Tropical cyclones are one of the most powerful severe weather events that produce devastating socioeconomic and environmental impacts in the areas they strike. Therefore, monitoring and tracking of the arrival times and path of the tropical cyclones are extremely valuable in providing early warning to the public and governments. Hurricane Florence struck the East cost of USA in 2018 and offers an outstanding case study. We employed Global Positioning System (GPS) derived precipitable water vapor (PWV) data to track and investigate the characteristics of storm occurrences in their spatial and temporal distribution using a dense ground network of permanent GPS stations. Our findings indicate that a rise in GPS-derived PWV occurred several hours before Florence's manifestation. Also, we compared the temporal distribution of the GPS-derived PWV content with the precipitation value for days when the storm appeared in the area under influence. The study will contribute to quantitative assessment of the complementary GPS tropospheric products in hurricane monitoring and tracking using GPS-derived water vapor evolution from a dense network of permanent GPS stations.
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