HR: 1340h
AN: A13A-0892    [Abstracts]
TI: Precipitable Water Vapor from GPS in Antarctica: Opportunities from the TAMDEF GPS Network, Victoria Land.
AU: * Vazquez, G E
EM: vazquez.41@osu.edu
AF: The Ohio State University, 470 Hitchcock Hall 2070 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43202-1275 United States
AU: Grejner, D A
EM: dbrzezinska@osu.edu
AF: The Ohio State University, 470 Hitchcock Hall 2070 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43202-1275 United States
AB: An experiment was carried out in order to estimate Precipitable Water Vapor (PWV) using the Global Positioning System (GPS) data collected by the Trans Antarctic Mountain Deformation Network, Victoria Land in Antarctica. TAMDEF is the OSU and US Geological Survey joint project sponsored by National Science Foundation (NSF). Estimation of PWV from the GPS data could play a crucial role in weather and climate study for Antarctica, by increasing the spatial and temporal resolutions of PWV estimates that can be used together with traditional meteorological data (such as ground meteorological stations and radiosonde) in the numerical weather prediction models. The basic observation used in this experiment is the ion-free, double-difference phase observations. Data collected by the TAMDEF network were processed using the PAGES software (Program for the Adjustment of GPS Ephemerides) with a 30-s sampling rate and 15-degree cutoff angle, using precise GPS orbits disseminated by the IGS (International GPS Service). PAGES is a production and research tool employed for a variety of NGS products (Mader et al. 1995). Optimal data reduction strategy was developed based on three different models tested. The Niell Mapping Functions and CfA 2.2 mapping functions with the Saastamoinen model, and the Marini model were used to estimate the wet delay (step Piece-Wise Linear strategy), which later was transformed to PWV via Bevis et al. (1992). The GPS PWV estimates are currently being compared to the radiosonde data in order to assess the quality of the GPS PWV solutions. The preliminary results are very promising, indicating a good match between the two methods. In summary, introducing GPS-derived PWV to weather/climate models will improve the model's predictive capability, and will allow a better understanding of the Antarctic weather conditions (and climate). Furthermore, more exact forecast of storm systems will recover surface, coastal, and air travel safety across the Antarctic environment, which is an essential fact for any extended research operations conducted across the continent.
DE: 1220 Atmosphere monitoring with geodetic techniques (6952)
DE: 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005