The Potential for Observing African Weather with GNSS Remote Sensing
When compared to the wide range of atmospheric sensing techniques, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) offers the advantage of operating under all weather conditions, is continuous, with high temporal and spatial resolution and high accuracy, and has long-term stability. The utilisation of GNS...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2015-01-01
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| Series: | Advances in Meteorology |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/723071 |
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| author | Olalekan A. Isioye Ludwig Combrinck Joel O. Botai Cilence Munghemezulu |
| author_facet | Olalekan A. Isioye Ludwig Combrinck Joel O. Botai Cilence Munghemezulu |
| author_sort | Olalekan A. Isioye |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | When compared to the wide range of atmospheric sensing techniques, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) offers the advantage of operating under all weather conditions, is continuous, with high temporal and spatial resolution and high accuracy, and has long-term stability. The utilisation of GNSS ground networks of continuous stations for operational weather and climate services is already in place in many nations in Europe, Asia, and America under different initiatives and organisations. In Africa, the situation appears to be different. The focus of this paper is to assess the conditions of the existing and anticipated GNSS reference network in the African region for meteorological applications. The technical issues related to the implementation of near-real-time (NRT) GNSS meteorology are also discussed, including the data and network requirements for meteorological and climate applications. We conclude from this study that the African GNSS network is sparse in the north and central regions of the continent, with a dense network in the south and fairly dense network in the west and east regions of the continent. Most stations lack collocated meteorological sensors and other geodetic observing systems as called for by the GCOS Reference Upper Air Network (GRUAN) GNSS Precipitable Water Task Team and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Preliminary results of calculated zenith tropospheric delay (ZTD) from the African GNSS indicate spatial variability and diurnal dependence of ZTD. To improve the density and geometry of the existing network, countries are urged to contribute more stations to the African Geodetic Reference Frame (AFREF) program and a collaborative scheme between different organisations maintaining different GNSS stations on the continent is recommended. The benefit of using spaced based GNSS radio occultation (RO) data for atmospheric sounding is highlighted and filling of geographical gaps from the station-based observation network with GNSS RO is also proposed. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c9b200c4f5e64718a250c128fc0e1f6f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1687-9309 1687-9317 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2015-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Advances in Meteorology |
| spelling | doaj-art-c9b200c4f5e64718a250c128fc0e1f6f2025-02-03T01:10:32ZengWileyAdvances in Meteorology1687-93091687-93172015-01-01201510.1155/2015/723071723071The Potential for Observing African Weather with GNSS Remote SensingOlalekan A. Isioye0Ludwig Combrinck1Joel O. Botai2Cilence Munghemezulu3Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South AfricaDepartment of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South AfricaDepartment of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South AfricaDepartment of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South AfricaWhen compared to the wide range of atmospheric sensing techniques, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) offers the advantage of operating under all weather conditions, is continuous, with high temporal and spatial resolution and high accuracy, and has long-term stability. The utilisation of GNSS ground networks of continuous stations for operational weather and climate services is already in place in many nations in Europe, Asia, and America under different initiatives and organisations. In Africa, the situation appears to be different. The focus of this paper is to assess the conditions of the existing and anticipated GNSS reference network in the African region for meteorological applications. The technical issues related to the implementation of near-real-time (NRT) GNSS meteorology are also discussed, including the data and network requirements for meteorological and climate applications. We conclude from this study that the African GNSS network is sparse in the north and central regions of the continent, with a dense network in the south and fairly dense network in the west and east regions of the continent. Most stations lack collocated meteorological sensors and other geodetic observing systems as called for by the GCOS Reference Upper Air Network (GRUAN) GNSS Precipitable Water Task Team and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Preliminary results of calculated zenith tropospheric delay (ZTD) from the African GNSS indicate spatial variability and diurnal dependence of ZTD. To improve the density and geometry of the existing network, countries are urged to contribute more stations to the African Geodetic Reference Frame (AFREF) program and a collaborative scheme between different organisations maintaining different GNSS stations on the continent is recommended. The benefit of using spaced based GNSS radio occultation (RO) data for atmospheric sounding is highlighted and filling of geographical gaps from the station-based observation network with GNSS RO is also proposed.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/723071 |
| spellingShingle | Olalekan A. Isioye Ludwig Combrinck Joel O. Botai Cilence Munghemezulu The Potential for Observing African Weather with GNSS Remote Sensing Advances in Meteorology |
| title | The Potential for Observing African Weather with GNSS Remote Sensing |
| title_full | The Potential for Observing African Weather with GNSS Remote Sensing |
| title_fullStr | The Potential for Observing African Weather with GNSS Remote Sensing |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Potential for Observing African Weather with GNSS Remote Sensing |
| title_short | The Potential for Observing African Weather with GNSS Remote Sensing |
| title_sort | potential for observing african weather with gnss remote sensing |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/723071 |
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