Consistency Evaluation of Precipitable Water Vapor Derived From ERA5, ERA‐Interim, GNSS, and Radiosondes Over China

Abstract

As an important component of atmosphere, water vapor is highly involved in the global water cycle and energy exchange. To date, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and radiosonde techniques have been widely used to detect the water vapor content in the atmosphere. Recently, European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has released the latest reanalysis data set, namely, ECMWF Re‐Analysis (ERA5), whose temporal and spatial resolutions have a significant improvement over its previous‐generation product of ERA‐Interim. This study aims to assess the consistency of precipitable water vapors (PWVs) derived from ERA5, ERA‐Interim, GNSS, and radiosondes during the entire year of 2017. The GNSS‐derived PWVs were obtained at 41 Crustal Movement Observation Network of China stations, while the radiosonde‐derived PWVs were acquired at the adjacent 41 radiosonde stations. The nationwide PWVs derived from the ERA5 and ERA‐Interim show root‐mean‐square (RMS) errors of 1.8 and 2.1 mm with respect to the GNSS PWVs and 2.7 and 2.8 mm with respect to the radiosonde PWVs, respectively. Besides, the RMS errors exhibit significant regional and seasonal differences. The nationwide relative RMS of the ERA5‐ and ERA‐Interim‐derived PWVs are 11.1% and 13.4% with respect to the GNSS PWVs and 16.2% and 17.8% with respect to the radiosonde PWVs, respectively. The relative RMS values show significant difference between the east and west sides of Hu line across China. Furthermore, the nationwide PWVs are obtained using GNSS data sets at over 200 Crustal Movement Observation Network of China stations to compare with the ERA5‐derived PWVs in China. Results indicate that the spatial distribution of the PWVs derived from the two data sources is quite consistent, suggesting a great application prospect of the ERA5 products in China.

Distinct aerosol effects on cloud-to-ground lightning in the plateau and basin regions of Sichuan, Southwest China

“…The significance of the correlation between CG lightning and environmental factors are weakened, especially for SHEAR, CBH, and TCLW in the basin region. Partial correlation analysis has been used in many previous studies (Wang et al, 2018;Zhao et al, 2019) to discuss the dependence between two variables when influence from other variables is possible. To avoid interactions between the factors involved and to discuss the relationships between different factors and lightning activity more inde- pendently, Fig.…”

Evaluation of Hourly PWV Products Derived From ERA5 and MERRA‐2 Over the Tibetan Plateau Using Ground‐Based GNSS Observations by Two Enhanced Models

“…Recently, a few investigations of ERA5 and MERRA-2 PWV estimates have been conducted. Zhang et al (2019c) evaluated the consistency of the PWV values derived from ERA5, ERA-Interim, GNSS observations, and radiosondes for 2017 over China. Zhang et al (2019b) systematically evaluated the suitability of the ERA5-derived surface pressure (Ps), surface temperature (Ts) and Tm for hourly GPS-based PWV retrievals in 2017 over China, and the diurnal variations of PWV were also investigated by using these parameters.…”

Evaluation of Precipitable Water Vapor from Five Reanalysis Products with Ground-Based GNSS Observations

“…The change of atmospheric water vapor content has an important impact on weather prediction and global climate change [1,2]. In general, each 1 K rise in temperature can make the atmospheric such as China [4,33,34], Europe [35,36], North America [37], Japan [38], and other regions [39]. Hagemann, et al [40] compared the values of GNSS PWV with the values of PWV from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF); the result shows that the values of GNSS PWV are well suited for the validation of PWV of reanalysis products.…”