View article

The experimental characterization of tropospheric effects on electromagnetic waves relies on the reception of a beacon signal transmitted by a satellite. The total tropospheric attenuation can be derived from these measurements in combination with additional information, specifically the attenuation due to atmospheric gases, in turn derived from ancillary instruments or data sources. When available, this information is obtained from a cosited radiometer. This article presents three alternative procedures to estimate the gas attenuation that can be used in the absence of this instrument. The first one makes use of zenith total delay data obtained from the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers and additional meteorological data. The second one relies on atmospheric profiles gathered from radiosonde observations and/or numerical weather prediction (NWP) products. The third one only makes use of …