Tracking Hurricanes Using GPS Atmospheric Precipitable Water Vapor Field

Ejigu, Yohannes Getachew; Teferle, Felix Norman; Kłos, Anna; Bogusz, Janusz; Hunegnaw, Addisu

doi:10.1007/1345_2020_100

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…More recently, Graffigna et al (2019) showed a significant shift in ZTD gradients prior to the arrival of a hurricane. Ejigu et al (2020) assessed the connection between GPS-derived IWV and its influence on TC structure during Hurricane Florence in 2018.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring and prediction of hurricane tracks using GPS tropospheric products

et al. 2021

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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.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring and prediction of hurricane tracks using GPS tropospheric products

et al. 2021

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“…More recently, ref. [18,19] showed the link between GNSS-derived IWVs and their impact on tropical cyclone structures to be an additional resource for enhancing the monitoring of hurricane trajectories; thus, it is possible to track the movement of atmospheric fronts. Additionally, Ref.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Impact of GPS Multipath Correction Maps and Post-Fit Residuals on Slant Wet Delays for Tracking Severe Weather Events

et al. 2023

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Climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of weather events with heavy precipitation, making communities worldwide more vulnerable to flash flooding. As a result, accurate fore- and nowcasting of impending excessive rainfall is crucial for warning and mitigating these hydro-meteorological hazards. The measurement of integrated water vapour along slant paths is made possible by ground-based global positioning system (GPS) receiver networks, delivering three-dimensional (3D) water vapour distributions at low cost and in real-time. As a result, these data are an invaluable supplementary source of knowledge for monitoring storm events and determining their paths. However, it is generally known that multipath effects at GPS stations have an influence on incoming signals, particularly at low elevations. Although estimates of zenith total delay and horizontal linear gradients make up the majority of the GPS products for meteorology to date, these products are not sufficient for understanding the full 3D distribution of water vapour above a station. Direct utilization of slant delays can address this lack of azimuthal information, although, at low elevations it is more prone to multipath (MP) errors. This study uses the convective storm event that happened on 27 July 2017 over Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which caused flash floods and severe damage, to examine the effects of multipath-corrected slant wet delay (SWD) estimations on monitoring severe weather events. First, we reconstructed the one-way SWD by adding GPS post-fit phase residuals, describing the anisotropic component of the SWD. Because MP errors in the GPS phase observables can considerably impact SWD from individual satellites, we used an averaging technique to build station-specific MP correction maps by stacking the post-fit phase residuals acquired from a precise point positioning (PPP) processing strategy. The stacking was created by spatially organizing the residuals into congruent cells with an optimal resolution in terms of the elevation and azimuth at the local horizon.This enables approximately equal numbers of post-fit residuals to be distributed across each congruent cell. Finally, using these MP correction maps, the one-way SWD was improved for use in the weather event analysis. We found that the anisotropic component of the one-way SWD accounts for up to 20% of the overall SWD estimates. For a station that is strongly influenced by site-specific multipath error, the anisotropic component of SWD can reach up to 4.3 mm in equivalent precipitable water vapour. The result also showed that the spatio-temporal changes in the SWD as measured by GPS closely reflected the moisture field estimated from a numerical weather prediction model (ERA5 reanalysis) associated with this weather event.

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“…Such is the case of Reference [4], where the authors were able to monitor a widespread, long-lived, straightline wind convective system in Poland that occurred on 11 August 2017 using 278 GNSS reference stations by means of the ZTD and its gradients. Recently, Reference [5] studied hurricane Florence that struck the east coast of USA in 2018, contributing to hurricane monitoring and tracking using GPS-derived water vapor evolution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comprehensive Study on the Tropospheric Wet Delay and Horizontal Gradients during a Severe Weather Event

et al. 2022

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GNSS meteorology is today one of the most growing technologies to monitor severe weather events. In this paper, we present the usage of 160 GPS reference stations over the period of 14 days to monitor and track Hurricane Harvey, which struck Texas in August 2017. We estimate the Zenith Wet Delay (ZWD) and the tropospheric gradients with 30 s interval using TOMION v2 software and carry out the processing in Precise Point Positioning (PPP) mode. We study the relationship of these parameters with atmospheric variables extracted from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite mission and climate reanalysis model ERA5. This research finds that the ZWD shows patterns related to the rainfall rate and to the location of the hurricane. We also find that the tropospheric gradients are correlated with water vapor gradients before and after the hurricane, and with the wind and the pressure gradients only after the hurricane. This study also shows a new finding regarding the spectral distribution of the gradients, with a clear diurnal period present, which is also found on the ZWD itself. This kind of study approaches the GNSS meteorology to the increasing requirements of meteorologist in terms of monitoring severe weather events.

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Tracking Hurricanes Using GPS Atmospheric Precipitable Water Vapor Field

Cited by 7 publications

References 44 publications

Monitoring and prediction of hurricane tracks using GPS tropospheric products

Monitoring and prediction of hurricane tracks using GPS tropospheric products

On the Impact of GPS Multipath Correction Maps and Post-Fit Residuals on Slant Wet Delays for Tracking Severe Weather Events

Comprehensive Study on the Tropospheric Wet Delay and Horizontal Gradients during a Severe Weather Event

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