ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR SENSING SYSTEM USING GLOBAL POSITIONING SATELLITES

摘要

An atmospheric water vapor sensing system using Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) (120-124) to determine the refractivity and Slant-path Water Vapor (SWV) between an Earth-based GPS receiver (105) and a plurality of satellite-based GPS transmitters (120-124). Either the refractivity measure or the SWV measure can be input directly into weather forecasting models. SWV is the integrated atmospheric water vapor in a column of atmosphere at an acute angular line-of-sight path between the Earth-based GPS receiver (105, 220) and any one of the plurality of satellite-based GPS transmitters (120-124). SWV sensing facilitates atmospheric soundings over land and water to provide global scale high resolution atmospheric tomography for use in operational meteorology and meteorological forecasting.