We report experimental observations of precipitable water vapor (PWV) derived using Global Positioning System/Global Navigation Satellite System (GPS/GNSS) receivers mounted on autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs), which were deployed in the tropical Pacific Ocean from July to September 2018. The GPS atmospheric delay was estimated by precise point positioning and converted to PWV with ASV surface meteorological data. The GPS-PWV was in agreement with the PWV obtained from radiosondes, with a root mean square error of 3.02 mm and a mean difference of 0.16 mm. A similar accuracy was found in a comparison of GPS-PWV with satellite-based microwave measurements. In anticipation of real-time monitoring applications, PWV was also estimated using real-time clock and orbit data. These estimates were in agreement with the post-processing values. High-resolution temporal observations of PWV over the open ocean made possible by ASV technology could greatly improve our understanding of the rapid variations of developing convective systems.

我们报告了使用安装在自动水面航行器（ASV）上的全球定位系统/全球导航卫星系统（GPS / GNSS）接收器获得的可沉淀水蒸气（PWV）的实验观察结果，该接收器于2018年7月至9月部署在热带太平洋中。 GPS大气延迟通过精确的点定位进行估算，并通过ASV地面气象数据转换为PWV。GPS-PWV与从无线电探空仪获得的PWV一致，均方根误差为3.02 mm，平均差为0.16 mm。在将GPS-PWV与基于卫星的微波测量结果进行比较时，发现了类似的精度。在期待实时监控应用时，还使用实时时钟和轨道数据来估算PWV。这些估计与后处理值一致。