Assessment of precipitable water vapour by use of a local GPS network and microwave ground-based radiometer

This paper reports experimental results carried out in the central part of Italy, from March to April 2000, in order to monitor main features of integrated precipitable water vapour (IPWV) horizontal distribution by means of a specific GPS network with five receivers and a scanning microwave ground-based radiometer (WVR-1100). A comparison of IPWV estimates obtained from GPS data, using Bernese 4.2 software package, and from WVR-1100 measurements is presented to assess the accuracy and reliability of such techniques under different meteorological conditions. Moreover, the main horizontal features of IPWV distribution are pointed out.