Combining Meteosat-10 satellite image data with GPS tropospheric path delays to estimate regional integrated water vapor (IWV) distribution

Abstract

Using GPS satellites signals, we can study different processes and coupling mechanisms that can help us understand the physical conditions in the lower atmosphere, which might lead or act as proxies for severe weather events such as extreme storms and flooding. GPS signals received by ground stations are multi-purpose and can also provide estimates of tropospheric zenith delays, which can be converted into accurate integrated water vapor (IWV) observations using collocated pressure and temperature measurements on the ground. Here, we present for the first time the use of Israel's dense regional GPS network for extracting tropospheric zenith path delays combined with near-real-time Meteosat-10 water vapor (WV) and surface temperature pixel intensity values (7.3 and 10.8 μm channels, respectively) in order to assess whether it is possible to obtain absolute IWV (kg m-2) distribution. The results show good agreement between the absolute values obtained from our triangulation strategy based solely on GPS zenith total delays (ZTD) and Meteosat-10 surface temperature data compared with available radiosonde IWV absolute values. The presented strategy can provide high temporal and special IWV resolution, which is needed as part of the accurate and comprehensive observation data integrated in modern data assimilation systems and is required for increasing the accuracy of regional numerical weather prediction systems forecast.