New paper: “Analysis of the annual cycle of the precipitable water vapour over Spain from 10-year homogenized series of GPS data” published in Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society

This study reports the characteristics of precipitable water vapour (PWV) at ten sites over Spain from 10 years of hourly data from ground-based global positioning system (GPS) receivers. The highest values are registered at sites on the coast, especially on the Mediterranean coast, and lowest values were at inland sites. The PWV presents a clear annual cycle, with a minimum in winter and maximum at the end of the summer. However, the southwestern sites present a relative minimum in July. This minimum seems to be related with the presence of drier air masses in the atmospheric layers between 1 and 4 km altitude, likely related to Saharan air masses.

Full reference:

Ortiz de Galisteo, J. P., Bennouna, Y., Toledano, C., Cachorro, V., Romero, P., Andrés, M. I. and Torres, B. (2013), Analysis of the annual cycle of the precipitable water vapour over Spain from 10-year homogenized series of GPS data. Q.J.R. Meteorol. Soc.. doi: 10.1002/qj.2146

The first author of this paper, Dr. Jose Pablo Ortiz de Galisteo is the current Director of the AEMET’s Territorial Delegation at Castilla y Leon.