Abstract
Abstract. Global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs) have revolutionised positioning, navigation, and timing, becoming a common part of our everyday life. Aside from these well-known civilian and commercial applications, GNSS is now an established atmospheric observing system, which can accurately sense water vapour, the most abundant greenhouse gas, accounting for 60–70 % of atmospheric warming. In Europe, the application of GNSS in meteorology started roughly two decades ago, and today it is a well-established field in both research and operation. This review covers the state of the art in GNSS meteorology in Europe. The advances in GNSS processing for derivation of tropospheric products, application of GNSS tropospheric products in operational weather prediction and application of GNSS tropospheric products for climate monitoring are discussed. The GNSS processing techniques and tropospheric products are reviewed. A summary of the use of the products for validation and impact studies with operational numerical weather prediction (NWP) models as well as very short weather prediction (nowcasting) case studies is given. Climate research with GNSSs is an emerging field of research, but the studies so far have been limited to comparison with climate models and derivation of trends. More than 15 years of GNSS meteorology in Europe has already achieved outstanding cooperation between the atmospheric and geodetic communities. It is now feasible to develop next-generation GNSS tropospheric products and applications that can enhance the quality of weather forecasts and climate monitoring. This work is carried out within COST Action ES1206 advanced global navigation satellite systems tropospheric products for monitoring severe weather events and climate (GNSS4SWEC, http://gnss4swec.knmi.nl).
Highlights
Atmospheric water vapour has a complex life cycle in the troposphere, including vertical and horizontal transport, mixing, condensation, precipitation, and evaporation
Collaborative activities aiming at the exploitation of global positioning system (GPS) observations for monitoring atmospheric water vapour started with the European Commission (EC) 4th Framework Program (FP) projects WAVEFRONT (GPS WAter Vapour Experiment For Regional Operational Network Trials) and MAGIC (Meteorological Applications of GPS Integrated Column Water Vapour Measurements in the western Mediterranean)
Non-reviewed and unpublished research is included in this review in order to accurately present the current state of the art regarding the use of ground-based Global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs) data in meteorology
Summary
Atmospheric water vapour has a complex life cycle in the troposphere, including vertical and horizontal transport, mixing, condensation, precipitation, and evaporation. The establishment of GPS meteorology as an operational atmospheric sounding technique in Europe was the focus of a number of major European projects (Fig. 1). Collaborative activities aiming at the exploitation of GPS observations for monitoring atmospheric water vapour started with the European Commission (EC) 4th Framework Program (FP) projects WAVEFRONT (GPS WAter Vapour Experiment For Regional Operational Network Trials) and MAGIC (Meteorological Applications of GPS Integrated Column Water Vapour Measurements in the western Mediterranean). In 2003, MAGIC and COST-716 were followed by the EC 5th FP scientific project TOUGH (Targeting Optimal Use of GPS Humidity Measurements in Meteorology), and in April 2005, the EIG EUMETNET GPS Water Vapour Programme (E-GVAP, http://egvap.dmi.dk) was established to transform GPS meteorology from an R&D activity to a fully operational service across Europe.
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