Appraising the effects of atmospheric aerosols and ground particulates concentrations on GPS-derived PWV estimates

Abstract

In 2016, three Nigerian cities were listed amongst the World's most polluted in terms of particulate matter (PM). Acknowledging Nigeria's limited resources for outdoor air pollution monitoring, this study attempts to investigate the effects on atmospheric aerosol optical depth and ground PM on GPS derived-precipitable water vapour estimates. The study utilized available GPSderived precipitable water vapour (GPSPWV), the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer aerosol optical depth (MODISAOD) and the ground level particulate matter of less than 10 microns (GPM) datasets for December 2015 -November 2016. All the datasets were tested for normality. To evaluate the atmospheric aerosol properties, the MODISPWV estimates were pre-validated using the GPSPWV measurements. The results revealed GPSPWV-MODISPWV agreement (R = 0.964; RMSE = 3.810 mm). The GPSPWV-MODISAOD analysis showed relationship (R ≤ -0.636; RMSE ≤ 0.563) for the atmospheric aerosol experiment, while the collocating GPSPWV-GPM seasonal analysis also revealed significant correlation (R < -0.660). The correlation of combined seasonal datasets for the GPSPWV-MODISAOD and GPSPWV-GPM relationships showed high negative correlation values of 0.79 and 0.68 respectively. The findings of this study is in agreement with similar related studies, as well as serve as future position accuracy for similar related studies.

Monitoring and forecasting spatio-temporal LULC for Akure rainforest habitat in Nigeria

“…For developing cities with limited capabilities, advances in RS technologies are contributing to their substantial improvement in environmental resource monitoringoriented researches (Aliyu and Botai, 2018b,a;Bello et al, 2014;Oloukoi et al, 2014). The findings obtained from the readily available RS datasets have continued to provide stakeholders with a better grasp and informed position for current and future policy plans (Aliyu and Botai, 2018a;Mahboob et al, 2015;Schaeffer et al, 2013).…”