The Global Positioning System (GPS), both with ground-based and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) receivers, allows to retrieve atmospheric parameters in all the weather conditions. Ground-based GPS technique provides the integrated water vapour (IWV) with temporal continuity at a specific receiver station, while the GPS LEO satellites allow profiling the atmosphere through the Radio Occultation (RO) technique, with high vertical resolution but low temporal resolution at a specific site. The objective of this work is to connect the convective system intensity measured by meteorological weather stations, to the storm´s characteristics retrieved by the GPS signal. Several precipitation events (in Europe and United States) were analyzed exploiting the potential of the two GPS techniques (i.e. ground-based and space-based GPS receivers). From ground-based receivers, time series of IWV were produced at specific locations with the purpose of analysing the water vapour behaviour before and during precipitation events and connecting this behaviour to the precipitation intensity. From LEO receivers, the profiling potential was exploited to retrieve the cloud top altitude of convective events, and we connected the cloud top altitude to the precipitation intensity. The GPS technique can be considered as a supplemental meteorological system useful in studying precipitation events, but with very different spatial and temporal features depending on the receiver positioning. Our results are promising and the synergy of the different information provided on the same target area by ground based and LEO receivers could contribute to the development of an algorithm for nowcasting the intensity of the severe convection.

The synergy of ground based GPS measurements and the GPS radio occultation for analyzing precipitation events

BONAFONI, Stefania
2015

Abstract

The Global Positioning System (GPS), both with ground-based and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) receivers, allows to retrieve atmospheric parameters in all the weather conditions. Ground-based GPS technique provides the integrated water vapour (IWV) with temporal continuity at a specific receiver station, while the GPS LEO satellites allow profiling the atmosphere through the Radio Occultation (RO) technique, with high vertical resolution but low temporal resolution at a specific site. The objective of this work is to connect the convective system intensity measured by meteorological weather stations, to the storm´s characteristics retrieved by the GPS signal. Several precipitation events (in Europe and United States) were analyzed exploiting the potential of the two GPS techniques (i.e. ground-based and space-based GPS receivers). From ground-based receivers, time series of IWV were produced at specific locations with the purpose of analysing the water vapour behaviour before and during precipitation events and connecting this behaviour to the precipitation intensity. From LEO receivers, the profiling potential was exploited to retrieve the cloud top altitude of convective events, and we connected the cloud top altitude to the precipitation intensity. The GPS technique can be considered as a supplemental meteorological system useful in studying precipitation events, but with very different spatial and temporal features depending on the receiver positioning. Our results are promising and the synergy of the different information provided on the same target area by ground based and LEO receivers could contribute to the development of an algorithm for nowcasting the intensity of the severe convection.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11391/1344986
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