Benefits of using galileo for real-time GNSS meteorology

Abstract

Remote sensing of water vapor using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) is a well-established tool for weather and climate monitoring. The current challenges of GNSS meteorology are real-time performance and the inclusion of emerging GNSS, such as Galileo. We demonstrate that real-time GPS-only, Galileo-only, and GPS+Galileo solutions are consistent among each other. However, our results show that the Galileo-only solutions tend to underestimate Zenith Total Delay (ZTD) with respect to GPS. The Galileo-only real-time ZTD is less accurate as the one from GPS. The combination of both GNSS leads to a superior product. The daily solution availability increases by up to 50%, and the overall gain is 0.7% over the entire year. The accuracy improves by 3.7% to 8.5% and uncertainty is reduced by a factor of 1.5-2. A combined GPS and Galileo solution suppresses artifacts in a real-time ZTD product which otherwise would be attributed to high-frequency orbital effects.