Kinematic GNSS Estimation of Zenith Wet Delay over a Range of Altitudes

Abstract

tmospheric water vapor estimates from static ground-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers are now operationally assimilated into numerical weather prediction models, either as total precipitable water vapor (PWV) or zenith total delay. To extend this concept, the estimation of water vapor using kinematic GNSS has been investigated for over a decade. Previous kinematic GNSS PWV studies suggest a 2?3-mm PWV measurement agreement with radiosondes, almost commensurate with static GNSS PWV measurement accuracy, but the only comprehensive experiments undertaken have been shipborne. As a first step toward extending sea level?based studies to airborne experiments that obtain atmospheric profiles, the authors considered the kinematic GNSS estimation of atmospheric water vapor along a repeatable trajectory spanning substantial topographic relief, namely, the Snowdon Mountain Railway, United Kingdom. The atmospheric water vapor was indirectly quantified through the GNSS estimation of zenith wet delay (ZWD). Static GNSS [GPS+ Globalnaya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (GLONASS)] reference receivers were installed at the 950-m-altitude profile?s extremities, providing ZWD reference values that were interpolated to the train?s altitude, together with profiles from 100-m-resolution runs of the Met Office Unified Model. Similar GNSS ZWD accuracies to those from shipborne studies are demonstrated, namely, 12.1 mm (RMS) using double-difference relative kinematic GPS and 16.2 mm using kinematic GPS precise point positioning (PPP), but which is improved to 11.6 mm when using kinematic GPS+GLONASS PPP, commensurate with the relative kinematic GPS. The PPP solution represents a more typical airborne estimation scenario, that is, without relying on nearby GNSS reference stations.