Intercomparisons of precipitable water vapour derived from radiosonde, GPS and sunphotometer observations

Gong, Shaoqi (author), Chen, Wenqin (author), Zhang, Cunjie (author), Wu, Ping (author), Han, Jing (author)

The atmospheric precipitable water vapour (PWV) plays a crucial role in the hydrological cycle and energy transfer on a global scale. Radiosonde (RS), sunphotometer (SP) and GPS (as well as broader GNSS) receivers have gradually been the principal instruments for ground-based PWV observation. This study first co-locates the observation stations configured the three instruments in the globe and in three typical latitudinal climatic regions respectively, then the PWV data from the three instruments are matched each other according to the observing times. After the outliers are removed from the matched data pairs, the PWV intercomparisons for any two instruments are performed. The results show that the PWV estimates from any two instruments have a good agreement with very high correlation coefficients. The latitude and climate have no significant influence on the PWV measurements from the three instruments, indicating that the instruments are very stable and depend on their performance. The PWV differences of any two instruments display the normal distribution, indicating nonsystematic biases among the two PWV datasets. The relative differences between SP and GPS are the smallest, the middle between SP and RS, and those between GPS and RS are the largest. This study will be useful to promote GPS (GNSS) and SP PWV to be a substitute for RS PWV as a benchmark because of their high temporal resolutions.

• Language: English
• Keywords: intercomparison, precipitable water vapour, sunphotometer, GPS, radiosonde
• Work type: Scientific work
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FGG - Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Article acceptance date: 08.05.2020
• Publication date: 01.10.2020
• Year: 2020
• Number of pages: Str. 562-577
• Numbering: Letn. 64, št. 4
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-132796
• UDC: 528.28
• ISSN on article: 0351-0271
• DOI: 10.15292/geodetski-vestnik.2020.04.562-577
• COBISS.SI-ID: 45267459
• Publication date in RUL: 03.11.2021

GONG, Shaoqi, CHEN, Wenqin, ZHANG, Cunjie, WU, Ping and HAN, Jing, 2020, Intercomparisons of precipitable water vapour derived from radiosonde, GPS and sunphotometer observations. Geodetski vestnik. glasilo Zveze geodetov Slovenije [online]. 2020. Vol. 64, no. 4, p. 562–577. [Accessed 15 April 2025]. DOI 10.15292/geodetski-vestnik.2020.04.562-577. Retrieved from: https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/IzpisGradiva.php?lang=eng&id=132796

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Geodetski vestnik. glasilo Zveze geodetov Slovenije
• Shortened title: Geod. vestn.
• Publisher: Zveza geodetov Slovenije
• ISSN: 0351-0271
• COBISS.SI-ID: 5091842

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 01.10.2020

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Primerjava vsebnosti vodne pare v stolpcu zraka na podlagi radiosondaže ter opazovanj GPS in fotometra

Abstract

Atmosfeska vsebnost vodne pare v stolpcu zraka PWV (angl. precipitable water vapor) je globalno izrednega pomena tako z vidika hidriloškega kroženja kot prenosa energije. Radiosonde, sončni fotometer in sprejemniki GPS (pa tudi širše GNSS) so postali temeljni instrumenti za terestrično opazovanje PVW. Pri študiji smo imeli na voljo vse tri instrumente, ki so bili hkrati nameščeni na opazovalnih postajah, ki so geografsko pokrivale tri tipične podnebne pasove. Podatke PWV z vseh instrumentov smo združili glede na čas opazovanj. Po tem, ko smo odstranili izstopajoča opazovanja, smo izvedli primerjavo vrendosti PWV za vsak par opazovanj različnih instrumentov. Ugotavljamo, da geografska širina in podnebje ne vplivata pomembneje na vrednosti PWV, pridobljene z radiosondažo, z opazovanji GPS ali opazovanji s fotometrom. Odstopanja v vrednostih PWV za katerikoli par instrumentov so normalno porazdeljena, kar pomeni, da v podatkih PWV ni sistematičnih pogreškov. Relativne razlike med vrednostmi PWV, pridobljenimi z radiosondažo in opazovanji GPS, so najmanjše, nekoliko večje so razlike med vrendostmi, pridobljenimi z radiosondažo in fotometrijo, največje razlike pa so med vrednostmi, pridobljenimi z opazovanji GPS in radiosondažo. Študija je zanimiva za spodbujanje uporabe sprejemnikov GPS (GNSS) in fotometrov za določanje vrednosti PWV namesto radiosondaže, saj takšna opazovanja omogočajo tudi visoko časovno ločljivost.

• Keywords: primerjava, vsebnost vodne pare v stolpcu zraka, fotometer, GPS, radiosondaža