High resolution spatio‐temporal water vapour mapping using GPS and MERIS observations

Abstract

Improved knowledge of atmospheric water vapour and its temporal and spatial variability is of great scientific interest for climate research and weather prediction. Moreover, the availability of fine resolution water vapour maps is expected to reduce significant errors in applications using the Global Positioning System, GPS, or radar interferometry. Several methods exist to estimate water vapour using satellite systems. Combining radiances as measured in two spectral bands of the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) results in an Integrated Water Vapor (IWV) product with high spatial resolution, up to 300 m, but a limited temporal resolution of about three days, in case of cloud free conditions. On the other hand, IWV estimates can be derived from the zenith total delays as observed by continuous GPS networks. The GPS IWV estimates have a higher temporal resolution of typically 1 hour, but, even in Western Europe, inter‐station distances are at least tenths of kilometres. Here we describe how to obtain IWV products with high spatio‐temporal resolution by combining GPS and MERIS IWV estimates. For this purpose an analysis is made of MERIS and GPS based IWV data, retrieved at the same day over Western Europe. A variance–covariance analysis is performed and is subsequently applied to produce time series of combined high‐resolution water vapour maps using Kriging. The research presented here is a first step towards near real‐time fine resolution water vapour products.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Sybren de Haan from the Dutch Royal Meteorological Society, KNMI for providing the authors with the GPS IWV data as well as for his useful comments. The MERIS data used in this paper are disseminated by the European Space Agency, ESA. This project is funded under number EO‐085 by the Netherlands Institute for Space Research, SRON. Finally we would like to express our thanks to the three anonymous reviewers who provided us with many valuable comments and advice.