GPS meteorology: Mapping zenith wet delays onto precipitable water

Emerging networks of Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers can be used in the remote sensing of atmospheric water vapor. The time-varying zenith wet delay observed at each GPS receiver in a network can be transformed into an estimate of the precipitable water overlying that receiver. This transformation is achieved by multiplying the zenith wet delay by a factor whose magnitude is a function of certain constants related to the refractivity of moist air and of the weighted mean temperature of the atmosphere. The mean temperature varies in space and time and must be estimated a priori in order to transform an observed zenith wet delay into an estimate of precipitable water. We show that the relative error introduced during this transformation closely approximates the relative error in the predicted mean temperature. Numerical weather models can be used to predict the mean temperature with an rms relative error of less than 1%.

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Copyright 1994 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.
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Author Bevis, M.
Businger, S.
Chiswell, S.
Herring, T.
Anthes, Richard A.
Rocken, Christian
Ware, Randolph H.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 1994-03-01T00:00:00
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-17T17:57:46.889019
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:17341
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Bevis, M., Businger, S., Chiswell, S., Herring, T., Anthes, Richard A., Rocken, Christian, Ware, Randolph H.. (1994). GPS meteorology: Mapping zenith wet delays onto precipitable water. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7st7rdp. Accessed 31 July 2025.

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