Atmospheric water vapor retrieval by means of both a GPS network and a microwave radiometer during an experimental campaign in Cagliari, Italy, in 1999

Basili, P.; Bonafoni, Stefania; Ferrara, R.; Ciotti, P.; Fionda, E.; Arnbrosini, R.

doi:10.1109/36.964980

Cited by 38 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Many case studies compare IWV observations using different techniques (e.g. Basili et al, 2001;Bokoye et al, 2003) but there are few locations where IWV is routinely monitored using several types of instrument. One such site is the Southern Great Plains site in Oklahoma, run by the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Monitoring (ARM) program, where routine measurements are made by microwave radiometer, GPS, radiosonde and lidar (Revercomb et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The STARTWAVE atmospheric water database

et al. 2006

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Abstract. The STARTWAVE (STudies in Atmospheric Radiative Transfer and Water Vapour Effects) project aims to investigate the role which water vapour plays in the climate system, and in particular its interaction with radiation. Within this framework, an ongoing water vapour database project was set up which comprises integrated water vapour (IWV) measurements made over the last ten years by ground-based microwave radiometers, Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and sun photometers located throughout Switzerland at altitudes between 330 and 3584 m. At Bern (46.95 • N, 7.44 • E) tropospheric and stratospheric water vapour profiles are obtained on a regular basis and integrated liquid water, which is important for cloud characterisation, is also measured. Additional stratospheric water vapour profiles are obtained by an airborne microwave radiometer which observes large parts of the northern hemisphere during yearly flight campaigns. The database allows us to validate the various water vapour measurement techniques. Comparisons between IWV measured by the Payerne radiosonde with that measured at Bern by two microwave radiometers, GPS and sun photometer showed instrument biases within ±0.5 mm. • E, 366 m), which is located on the south side of the Alps, the bias is +1.9 mm. The sun photometer at Locarno was found to have a bias of −2.2 mm (13% of the mean annual IWV) relative to the data from the closest radiosonde station at Milano. This result led to a yearly rotation of the sun photometer instruments between low and high altitude stations to improve the calibrations. In order to demonstrate the caCorrespondence to: J. Morland (june.morland@mw.iap.unibe.ch) pabilites of the database for studying water vapour variations, we investigated a front which crossed Switzerland between 18 November 2004 and 19 November 2004. During the frontal passage, the GPS and microwave radiometers at Bern and Payerne showed an increase in IWV of between 7 and 9 mm. The GPS IWV measurements were corrected to a standard height of 500 m, using an empirically derived exponential relationship between IWV and altitude. A qualitative comparison was made between plots of the IWV distribution measured by the GPS and the 6.2 µm water vapour channel on the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite. Both showed that the moist air moved in from a northerly direction, although the MSG showed an increase in water vapour several hours before increases in IWV were detected by GPS or microwave radiometer. This is probably due to the fact that the satellite instrument is sensitive to an atmospheric layer at around 320 hPa, which makes a contribution of one percent or less to the IWV.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The STARTWAVE atmospheric water database

et al. 2006

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“…Longterm ZTD time series derived from the European permanent network (EPN) have been analyzed (Pacione et al 2013), and experimental studies on the use of GNSS data for the tomographic reconstruction of the refractivity field have been conducted (Notarpietro et al 2011). GNSS-derived water vapor has been compared to other water vapor products (Basili et al 2001;Boccolari et al 2002;Ciotti et al 2003;Cheng et al 2012;Bonafoni and Biondi 2016). Finally, within the last decade, a few studies on the use of GNSS products for both regional-and local-scale meteorological events have been carried out (Faccani et al 2005;Tammaro et al 2016;Ferrando 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection of water vapor time variations associated with heavy rain in northern Italy by geodetic and low-cost GNSS receivers

Barindelli

Realini²,

Venuti

et al. 2018

Earth Planets Space

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GNSS atmospheric water vapor monitoringis not yet routinely performed in Italy, particularly at the regional scale. However, in order to support the activities of regional environmental protection agencies, there is a widespread need to improve forecasting of heavy rainfall events. Localized convective rain forecasts are often misplaced in space and/ or time, causing inefficiencies in risk mitigation activities. Water vapor information can be used to improve these forecasts. In collaboration with the environmental protection agencies of the Lombardy and Piedmont regions in northern Italy, we have collected and processed GNSS and weather station datasets for two heavy rain events: one which was spatially widespread, and another which was limited to few square kilometers. The time variations in water vapor derived from a regional GNSS network with inter-station distances on the order of 50 km were analyzed, and the relationship between the time variations and the evolution of the rain events was evaluated. Results showed a signature associated with the passage of the widespread rain front over each GNSS station within the area of interest. There was a peak in the precipitable water vapor value when the heavier precipitation area surrounded the station, followed by a steep decrease (5-10 mm in about 1 h) as the rainclouds moved past the station. The smaller-scale event, a convective storm a few kilometers in extent, was not detected by the regional GNSS network, but strong fluctuations in water vapor were detected by a low-cost station located near the area of interest.

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“…With reference to an Italian ground-based network of GPS receivers, managed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), another experimental campaign was conducted in Cagliari (Italy), during the whole 1999 (Basili et al, 2001). The experimental site was selected at the Cagliari GPS station where a ground-based dual-channel microwave radiometer (WVR-1100) was operated for the whole campaign of measurements.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Considering monthly averages of П the uncertainty is around 1.5% (Basili et al, 2001). This approach does not need measurements of surface temperature for each computation of П.…”

Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%