Characteristics of Precipitable Water from Ground-Based GPS Measurements in Western Sichuan Plateau

Using the ground-based GPS data of JICA program,the characteristics of precipitable water in Western Sichuan Plateau were analyzed in his paper.Comparison the estimates of precipitable water from GPS measurements with sonde observations shows that the mean error is 0.17 mm,that is,the precision of the estimates of precipitable water from GPS measurements can fill the requirements of meteorological application.It is found that annual precipitable water in north part of Western Sichuan Plateau is 3 289.6 mm,while in south part that is 8 164.4 mm.The precipitable water in the nighttime is a bit higher than that in the daytime.Precipitable water contributes most in summer,secondarily in autumn,least in winter,which shows that there are distinctive dry and wet seasons in Western Sichuan Plateau.Meanwhile,precipitable water varies with month obviously,as well as its monthly variation trend in the nighttime is almost the same as that in the daytime.