Inter annual, spatial, seasonal, and diurnal variability of precipitable water vapour over northeast India using GPS time series

We present multi-scale variability of GPS-derived column integrated precipitable water vapour PWV estimated over five continuous GPS sites of northeast India from 2004 to 2012. PWV is estimated from GPS-derived zenith total delay using observed surface pressure and temperature from collocated meteorological sensors as well as obtained by interpolating European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts ECMWF reanalysis project ERA-Interim global reanalysis dataset. PWV estimated using ERA-Interim-derived parameters compare well with the PWV estimated using observed meteorological parameters with bias of less than ± 0.1 mm and highest root mean square error of 0.56 mm. The average PWV for the study period is about 17 mm at Bomdila in the Eastern Himalayas, about 20 mm at Shillong in Shillong plateau, about 31 mm at Lumami in Arokan-Yoma Hill ranges, and about 43 mm at Guwahati and Tezpur in Assam valley. The high altitude sites show low annual PWV variability around 49% than the low altitude sites around 63–67%. Seasonal PWV value coincides with the monsoon with maximum in summer and minimum in the winter. However, percentage seasonal PWV variability is found to be almost same around 68% for all the five sites. The Assam valley sites do not show a distinct diurnal cycle whereas the high altitude sites indicate a distinct diurnal cycle coinciding with the daily solar cycle. Insights in to GPS PWV variability and rainfall are presented for the study period.