Global navigation satellite systems for monitoring weather and climate

The project will address new and improved capabilities from new developments in the GNSS and meteorological communities. For the first time, the synergy of the three GNSS systems (the American GPS, Russian GLONASS and European Galileo) will be used to develop new, advanced tropospheric products. This will exploit the full potential of multi-GNSS water vapour estimates on a wide range of temporal and spatial scales, from real-time monitoring and forecasting of severe weather, to climate research.

The primary objectives of this research are:

• to develop new GNSS tropospheric products and assess their benefits in operational NWP and now-casting, with a special focus on forecasting of severe weather
• to coordinate the analysis of case studies to target known problems with modelling and forecasting of severe weather
• to strengthen and extend the dialogue between GNSS tropospheric product providers and end-users from the meteorological and climate communities, stimulate transfer of knowledge and data exchange
• to stimulate the exploitation of NWP data as an input to GNSS processing schemes, and assess the benefits for real-time GNSS positioning, navigation, and timing services
• to generate recommendations on optimal GNSS reprocessing algorithms for climate applications and standardise the method of conversion between propagation delay and atmospheric water vapour with respect to climate standards
• to coordinate the collection, archiving and exchange of raw GNSS data from various regional networks in Europe
• to establish a database of reprocessed GNSS tropospheric products at global and regional scales and assess their quality by inter-comparison with in-situ and remote sensing techniques
• to collaborate with the climate and meteorological communities, to assess and improve reanalyses and climate models (e.g. by assimilation of reprocessed GNSS tropospheric products) and investigate climate signals (trends and variability).

Another main focus of the project is to strengthen and intensify this inter-disciplinary collaboration and to encourage cross-border cooperation.

This research is a large scale project involving research institutions from the following countries; Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Slovakia, Turkey, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Tunisia and the United States.