Tomographic imaging of the neutral atmosphere using geodetic techniques.

EOS Transactions, AGU, 79(45):F38, November-10 1998.

 
Abstract:

Ground-based techniques such as interferometry with the Global Positioning
System (GPS) and with interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), or
radiometry using water wapor radiometers (WVR) are sensitive to the
integrated water-vapor content along the signal path.  Because the probing
of the atmosphere by these different techniques occurs at different, yet
complementary, time and spatial scales, the independent estimates could be
combined for atmospheric imaging.  InSAR provides temporal snapshots of
otherwise spatially dense estimates of water vapor.  GPS and WVR provide
quasi-continuous estimates of water vapor along discrete lines-of-site, and
could also provide spatially dense estimates if dense local arrays were
deployed.  The combination of atmospheric estimates obtained from all these
techniques could potentially be used to image local atmospheric
heterogeneities via tomographic techniques.  In this presentation, we will
focus of the assessment of the combined use of InSAR and GPS/WVR networks
for imaging the four-dimensional structure of the atmosphere.  We will also
present results from a recent multi-technique atmospheric experiment
designed to measure local heterogeneities.