The use of GPS meteorology for climate change detection

Since global warming issues have a growing concern in many parts of the world, monitoring water vapor variability as one of the climate parameters is very important to quantify its warming trend. Global Positioning System (GPS) technology provides an essential tool in retrieving atmospheric precipitable water vapor (PWV) on the global scale with superior temporal and spatial resolution. This paper reports the variability of PWV observed at four selected stations in Antarctica. PWV has been characterized and exhibits an annual cycle signal with a large seasonal variation; largest in the Austral summer and lowest in the Austral winter. PWV found correlated well with surface temperature. The maximum average of PWV and the surface temperature over the period 2003-2010 at all stations exhibited to decrease with slopes of ~0.38 and ~0.15, respectively. This implies that four selected stations in the duration of study are less affected by the global warming.