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A globally applicable, season-specific model for estimating the weighted mean temperature of the atmosphere

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Abstract

In GPS meteorology, the weighted mean temperature is usually obtained by using a linear function of the surface temperature T s. However, not every GPS station can measure the surface temperature. The current study explores the characteristics of surface temperature and weighted mean temperature based on the global pressure and temperature model (GPT) and the Bevis T m–T s relationship (T m = a + bT s). A new global weighted mean temperature (GWMT) model has been built which directly uses three-dimensional coordinates and day of the year to calculate the weighted mean temperature. The data of year 2005–2009 from 135 radiosonde stations provided by the Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive were used to calculate the model coefficients, which have been validated through examples. The result shows that the GWMT model is generally better than the existing liner models in most areas according to the statistic indexes (namely, mean absolute error and root mean square). Then we calculated precipitable water vapor, and the result shows that GWMT model can also yield high precision PWV.

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Abbreviations

GPS:

Global positioning system

GPT:

Global pressure and temperature

GWMT:

Global weighted mean temperature

GNSS:

Global navigation satellite system

ECMWF:

European Centre for Medium-Range

ECMWF:

Weather Forecasts

NCEP/NCAR:

National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research

IGRA:

Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive

IGS:

International GNSS service

MAE:

Mean absolute error

PWV:

Precipitable water vapor

RMS:

Root mean square

ZWD:

Zenith wet delay

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geodesy and Geomatics, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430079, China

    YiBin Yao, Shuang Zhu & ShunQiang Yue

Authors
  1. YiBin Yao
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  2. Shuang Zhu
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  3. ShunQiang Yue
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Correspondence to YiBin Yao.

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Yao, Y., Zhu, S. & Yue, S. A globally applicable, season-specific model for estimating the weighted mean temperature of the atmosphere. J Geod 86, 1125–1135 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-012-0568-1

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