Estimating atmospheric water vapor synergistically through ground-based, airborne and space-borne observations for monitoring water vapor transport induced by low-level jets during regional extreme rainfall events

In order to solve the problem of insufficient monitoring capabilities of water vapor transport (WVT) induced by low-level jets (LLJs), which restricts the improvement of regional extreme rainfall forecasting capabilities, the atmospheric water vapor as one of the key variables to monitor WVT will be synergistically estimated through ground-based, airborne and space-borne multi-platform including ground-based GNSS, microwave radiometer, lidar, radiosonde, high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles and Fengyun satellites and so forth. The estimates of atmospheric water vapor from different platforms will be compared to clarify the advantages and disadvantages of different monitoring methods, observation error characteristics and optimal applicable conditions. The GNSS tomography method will be developed to retrieve three-dimensional water vapor distribution. The observation network and observation mode will be optimized and the technology to synergistically monitor atmospheric water vapor through multiple instruments will be developed. In addition, the methods to combine and fuse the retrievals of water vapor from multi-platform will be developed. The fusion datasets of water vapor will be established. This datasets and wind datasets provided by another program will be used to compute integrated water vapor transport induced by LLJs. To sum up, this study would be of great help to advance LLJs monitoring and improve the accuracy of regional extreme rainfall forecasts induced by LLJs.