Comparison of atmospheric parameters derived from GPS, VLBI and a ground-based microwave radiometer in Italy

Abstract Integrated Precipitable Water Vapor (IPWV) derived from GPS, water vapor radiometer WVR-1100 and RAdiosonde OBservation (RAOB) have been compared for the Cagliari site (Italy) on a seasonal and annual bases. The comparison analysis on estimating IPWV among the three independent techniques (GPS, WVR-110 and RAOB) has shown high accuracy equal to 0.136 cm with a bias of −0.049 cm throughout 1999. Furthermore, a comparison has been made between the estimated atmospheric parameters, equivalent zenith tropospheric delay (ZTD) and horizontal gradient, as resulting from independent analyses of GPS and VLBI data for the three Italian collocated stations: Matera, Medicina and Noto. We have realized that VLBI ZTD estimates are lower than that obtained by GPS of about 1.0–1.5 cm, while the standard deviations range from 0.5 to 2.0 cm.