Validation of GPS-derived water vapour estimates

Research Team: Robin Wilson
Investigators: Joanna Nield, Jason Noble, Edward Milton

The AERONET sun photometer at the Chilbolton Facility for Atmospheric and Radar Research (CFARR), near Andover, UK

Since early in the development of GPS systems, it has been realised that the GPS signals in the atmosphere will be affected by the amount of water vapour present. This results in a 'slowing down' of the signal, which will manifest itself as an error in the GPS-derived location. This error must be estimated in the process of correcting the GPS location - but rather than just removing this error, we can use the error to estimate the water vapour content in the atmosphere above the sensor. This is the principle of GPS-derived water vapour estimates.

This project aims to validate these estimates against standard methods for measuring atmospheric water vapour: radiosonde measurements and sun photometer measurements from the AERONET network.

Computational Modelling Group

Validation of GPS-derived water vapour estimates

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