Applying Malawi Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) in GNSS Meteorology

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals in the L-band are affected by the non-dispersive neutral atmosphere. Regardless of their center frequency, the L-band code and phase observations are affected by the same measure of delay. GNSS receivers play a significant role in quantifying the zenith tropospheric delay (ZTD) from satellite signals. Malawi has a Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) network which was established to support research in geophysical geodesy and geodynamics. However, the quality of the observations tracked by the CORS has never been tested in terms of its meteorological application. In this paper, the ZTD estimation approach and the evaluation of results from the Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements are presented. The optimal approach of precise point positioning (PPP) was used to estimate ZTD from one-week datasets which were collected from six CORS monuments distributed in the northern and southern regions of Malawi. In addition, the zenith wet delay (ZWD) and zenith hydrostatic delay (ZHD) were also estimated to determine their respective contributions to the total delay in all the stations. Alongside the meteorological parameters, the positioning repeatabilities were also established for all stations. Results indicate that the averaged ZTD, ZWD and ZHD can reach as high as 247mm, 47 mm, and 199 mm, respectively. The minimum ZTD, ZWD, and ZHD for the stations can drop to as low as 220 mm, 24 mm, and 181 mm, respectively. This indicates that the ZHD contributes to more than 90% of the total delay at the stations. For the positioning performance, there was no obvious disparity in the latitude (less than 0.5 cm), longitude (less than 1 cm), and ellipsoidal height repeatabilities (less than 1.5 cm). Thus, the results clearly demonstrate that the Malawi CORS network may be used for GNSS-based meteorological applications using the available geodetic receivers. However, for high precision meteorological applications, Malawi may consider densifying the available network with geodetic grade receivers.