Water vapour quantification using GPS and contribution to the Cevenols events forecasts

Water vapour is highly variable in the atmosphere with concentration reaching saturation in the tropics and with dry areas over elevated continental region. Good knowledge of the amount of integrated water vapour in the air is necessary to predict phase changes and in particular precipitation. Water vapour variability measurements are still insufficient with standard observing systems. Moreover accurate GPS antenna positioning is affected by the refractivity index variation in the troposphere. Consequently, vertical positioning component estimation is difficult. This variation is directly linked to distribution of variables such as pressure, temperature and humidity along the path between satellite and receiver. Here we study more specifically heavy rains et notably Cevenols events. This thesis work consists to check the GPS measurement validity to quantify water vapour in comparison with measurements from radiosoundings and meteorological model outputs. GPS observations and flux surface information have been analysed to see if water vapour quantification by GPS allowed characterising heavy rain events (cumulative rainfall amount greater than 150 mm). Then, we tested the GPS data assimilation impact on cumulative precipitation forecasts using the high resolution Meteo France AROME model (2.5 km). Finally the quality and the contribution of GPS measurement on sea is evaluated for water vapour measurement. This study has been realised in the framework of VAPIMED experiment.