An improved typhoon monitoring model based on precipitable water vapor and pressure

The potential of monitoring the movement of typhoons using the precipitable water vapor(PWV) has been confirmed. However, monitoring the movement of typhoon is focused on PWV, making it difficult to describe the movement of a typhoon in detail minutely and resulting in insufficient accuracy. Hence,based on PWV and meteorological data, we propose an improved typhoon monitoring mode. First, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis 5-derived PWV(ERA5-PWV) and the Global Navigation Satellite System-derived PWV(GNSS-PWV) were compared with the reference radiosonde PWV(RS-PWV). Then, using the PWV and atmospheric parameters derived from ERA5, we discussed the anomalous variations of PWV, pressure(P), precipitation, and wind speed during different typhoons. Finally, we compiled a list of critical factors related to typhoon movement, PWV and P. We developed an improved multi-factor typhoon monitoring mode(IMTM) with different models(i.e.,IMTM-I and IMTM-II) in different cases with a higher density of GNSS observation or only Numerical Weather Prediction(NWP) data. The IMTM was evaluated through the reference movement speeds of HATO and Mangkhut from the China Meteorological Observatory Typhoon Network(CMOTN). The results show that the root mean square(RMS) of the IMTM-I is 1.26 km/h based on ERA5-P and ERA5-PWV,and the absolute bias values are mostly within 2 km/h. Compared with the models considering the single factor ERA5-P/ERA5-PWV, the RMS of the IMTM-I is improved by 26.3% and 38.5%, respectively. The IMTM-II model manifests a residual of only 0.35 km/h. Compared with the single-factor model based on GNSS-PWV/P, the residual of the IMTM-II model is reduced by 90.8% and 84.1%, respectively. These results propose that the typhoon movement monitoring approach combining PWV and P has evident advantages over the single-factor model and is expected to supplement traditional typhoon monitoring.

Evaluation of surface temperature and pressure derived from MERRA-2 and ERA5 reanalysis datasets and their applications in hourly GNSS precipitable water vapor retrieval over China

Temperature and pressure play key roles in Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS) precipitable water vapor(PWV) retrieval. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) and European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts(ECMWF) have released their latest reanalysis product: the modern-era retrospective analysis for research and applications, version 2(MERRA-2) and the fifthgeneration ECMWF reanalysis(ERA5), respectively. Based on the reanalysis data, we evaluate and analyze the accuracy of the surface temperature and pressure products in China using the the measured temperature and pressure data from 609 ground meteorological stations in 2017 as reference values.Then the accuracy of the two datasets and their performances in estimating GNSS PWV are analyzed. The PWV derived from the pressure and temperature products of ERA5 and MERRA-2 has high accuracy. The annual average biases of pressure and temperature for ERA5 are-0.07 hPa and 0.45 K, with the root mean square error(RMSE) of 0.95 hPa and 2.04 K, respectively. The annual average biases of pressure and temperature for MERRA-2 are-0.01 hPa and 0.38 K, with the RMSE of 1.08 h Pa and 2.66 K, respectively.The accuracy of ERA5 is slightly higher than that of MERRA-2. The two reanalysis data show negative biases in most regions of China, with the highest to lowest accuracy in the following order: the south,north, northwest, and Tibet Plateau. Comparing the GNSS PWV calculated using MERRA-2(GNSS MERRA-2 PWV) and ERA5(GNSS ERA5 PWV) with the radiosonde-derived PWV from 48 co-located GNSS stations and the measured PWV of the co-location radiosonde stations, it is found that the accuracy of GNSS ERA5 PWV is better than that of GNSS MERRA-2 PWV. These results show the different applicability of surface temperature and pressure products from MERRA-2 and ERA5 data, indicating that both have important applications in meteorological research and GNSS water vapor monitoring in China.

An ERA5 tropospheric parameters-augmented approach for improving GNSS precise point positioning

Precise Point Positioning(PPP) technology has developed into a potent instrument for geodetic positioning, ionospheric modeling, tropospheric atmospheric parameter detection, and seismic monitoring.As atmospheric reanalysis data products’ accuracy and spatiotemporal resolution have improved recently, it has become important to apply these products to obtain high-accuracy tropospheric delay parameters, like zenith tropospheric delay(ZTD) and tropospheric horizontal gradient. These tropospheric delay parameters can be applied to PPP to reduce the convergence time and to increase the accuracy in the vertical direction of the position. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis 5(ERA5) atmospheric reanalysis data is the latest product with a high spatiotemporal resolution released by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts(ECMWF). Only a few researches have evaluated the application of ERA5 data to Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)PPP. Therefore, this study compared and validated the ZTD products derived from ERA5 data using ZTD values provided by 290 global International GNSS Service(IGS) stations for 2016-2017. The results indicated a stable performance for ZTD, with annual average bias and RMS values of 0.23 cm and 1.09 cm,respectively. Further, GNSS observations for one week in each of the four seasons(spring: DOY 92-98;summer: DOY 199-205;autumn: DOY 275-281;and winter: DOY 22-28) from 34 multi-GNSS experiments(MGEX) stations distributed globally in 2016 were considered to evaluate the performance of ERA5-derived tropospheric delay products in GNSS PPP. The performance of ERA5-enhanced PPP was compared with that of the two standard GNSS PPP schemes(without estimated tropospheric horizontal gradient and with estimated tropospheric horizontal gradient). The results demonstrated that ERA5-enhanced GNSS PPP showed no significant improvement in the convergence times in both the Eastern(E) and Northern(N) directions, while the average convergence time over four weeks in the vertical(U)direction improved by 53.3% and 52.7%, respectively(in the case of pngm station). The average convergence times for each week in the U direction of the northern and southern hemisphere stations indicated a decrease of 16.3%, 12.6%, 9.6%, and 9.1%, and 16.9%, 9.6%, 8.9%, and 14.5%, respectively.Regarding positioning accuracy, ERA5-enhanced PPP showed an improvement of 13.3% and 16.2% over the two standard PPP schemes in the U direction, respectively. No significant improvement in the positioning performance was observed in both the E and N directions. Thus, this study demonstrated the potential application of the ERA5 tropospheric parameters-augmented approach to Beidou navigation and positioning.

Spatiotemporal characteristics of GNSS-derived precipitable water vapor during heavy rainfall events in Guilin,China

Precipitable Water Vapor(PWV),as an important indicator of atmospheric water vapor,can be derived from Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)observations with the advantages of high precision and all-weather capacity.GNSS-derived PWV with a high spatiotemporal resolution has become an important source of observations in mete-orology,particularly for severe weather conditions,for water vapor is not well sampled in the current meteorological observing systems.In this study,an empirical atmospheric weighted mean temperature(Tm)model for Guilin is estab-lished using the radiosonde data from 2012 to 2017.Then,the observations at 11 GNSS stations in Guilin are used to investigate the spatiotemporal features of GNSS-derived PWV under the heavy rainfalls from June to July 2017.The results show that the new Tm model in Guilin has better performance with the mean bias and Root Mean Square(RMS)of−0.51 and 2.12 K,respectively,compared with other widely used models.Moreover,the GNSS PWV estimates are validated with the data at Guilin radiosonde station.Good agreements are found between GNSS-derived PWV and radiosonde-derived PWV with the mean bias and RMS of−0.9 and 3.53 mm,respectively.Finally,an investigation on the spatiotemporal characteristics of GNSS PWV during heavy rainfalls in Guilin is performed.It is shown that variations of PWV retrieved from GNSS have a direct relationship with the in situ rainfall measurements,and the PWV increases sharply before the arrival of a heavy rainfall and decreases to a stable state after the cease of the rainfall.It also reveals the moisture variation in several regions of Guilin during a heavy rainfall,which is significant for the moni-toring of rainfalls and weather forecast.

Refining the ERA5-based global model for vertical adjustment of zenith tropospheric delay

Tropospheric delay is an important factor affecting high precision Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)positioning and also the basic data for GNSS atmospheric research.However,the existing tropospheric delay models have some problems,such as only a single function used for the entire atmosphere.In this paper,an ERA5-based(the fifth generation of European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis)global model for vertical adjustment of Zenith Tropospheric Delay(ZTD)using a piecewise function is developed.The ZTD data at 611 radiosonde stations and the MERRA-2(second Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications)atmospheric reanalysis data were used to validate the model reliability.The Global Zenith Tropospheric Delay Piecewise(GZTD-P)model has excellent performance compared with the Global Pressure and Temperature(GPT3)model.Validated at radiosonde stations,the performance of the GZTD-P model was improved by 0.96 cm(23%)relative to the GPT3 model.Validated with MERRA-2 data,the quality of the GZTD-P model is improved by 1.8 cm(50%)compared to the GPT3 model,showing better accuracy and stability.The ZTD vertical adjustment model with different resolutions was established to enrich the model's applicability and speed up the process of tropospheric delay calculation.By providing model parameters with different resolutions,users can choose the appropriate model according to their applications.