Study of Alternative GPS Network Meteorological Sensors in Taiwan: Case Studies of the Plum Rains and Typhoon Sinlaku

Kai-Wei Chiang,Wei-Chih Peng,Yen-Hua Yeh,Kwo-Hwa Chen

doi:10.3390/s90605001

Kai-Wei Chiang, Wei-Chih Peng + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/s90605001

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Abstract

Plum rains and typhoons are important weather systems in the Taiwan region. They can cause huge economic losses, but they are also considered as important water resources as they strike Taiwan annually and fill the reservoirs around the island. There are many meteorological sensors available for investigating the characteristics of weather and climate systems. Recently, the use of GPS as an alternative meteorological sensor has become popular due to the catastrophic impact of global climate change. GPS provides meteorological parameters mainly from the atmosphere. Precise Point Positioning (PPP) is a proven algorithm that has attracted attention in GPS related studies. This study uses GPS measurements collected at more than fifty reference stations of the e-GPS network in Taiwan. The first data set was collected from June 1st 2008 to June 7th 2008, which corresponds to the middle of the plum rain season in Taiwan. The second data set was collected from September 11th to September 17th 2008 during the landfall of typhoon Sinlaku. The data processing strategy is to process the measurements collected at the reference stations of the e-GPS network using the PPP technique to estimate the zenith tropospheric delay (ZTD) values of the sites; thus, the correlations between the ZTD values and the variation of rainfall during the plum rains and typhoon are analyzed. In addition, several characteristics of the meteorological events are identified using spatial and temporal analyses of the ZTD values estimated with the GPS network PPP technique.

Highlights

Plum rains are the unique weather and climate phenomenon that take place annually from May toJune in eastern Asia, including the Taiwan region and coastal China
This study proposed using zenith tropospheric delay (ZTD) values estimated from the well-distributed electronic-global satellite real-time kinematic positioning system (e-GPS) network of National Land Survey and Mapping Center (NLSC)
Precise Point Positioning (PPP) technique to implement supplemental meteorological sensors to investigate the characteristics of typhoons and plum rains

Summary

Introduction

Plum rains are the unique weather and climate phenomenon that take place annually from May toJune in eastern Asia, including the Taiwan region and coastal China. Plum rains can cause a lot of damage in Taiwan every year as they produce a large amount of rainfall over a very short period of time. Because the strengths of the air currents are similar, they often form a stationary front. This front moves slowly from south to north, bringing plentiful rainfall. As the frontal surface gradually moves north, the rainfall in the northern part of this region stops and the rainfall in the southern part remains.

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