Cyprus GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Meteorology Enhancement

The present work aims to describe the main objectives and activities of the research project “Cyprus GNSS Meteorology Enhancement” (CYGMEN) funded (€1.500.000) by the Cyprus Research Innovation Foundation (RIF) in the frames of "Strategic Research Infrastructures" Call for Proposals. CYGMEN was initiated at December 2023 with the aim to establish a Meteorological cluster (CyMETEO) in Cyprus that will strategically augment existing Frederick Research Center and Department of Meteorology infrastructure, through the introduction of: a) a Lighting detection network, b) a dense GNSS network for atmospheric water vapor estimation (supported by Cloudwater Ltd and Nicosia Development Agency, c) a Radar Wind Profiler (RWP) and d) a Microwave Radiometer (MWR). Within this framework, preliminary activities for the establishment of CyMETEO infrastructure will be presented here. The CyMETEO infrastructure will be also accompanied by an advanced CyMETEO service that will be developed in order to: a) process and provide in near real-time all different types of data generated by CyMETEO infrastructure (CyMETEO Observational Analysis Component) and b) provide advanced short-term weather forecasting through the assimilation of CyMETEO data into the state-of-the-art Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model currently employed operationally by the Cyprus DoM without, however, performing any Data Assimilation (CyMETEO Simulation Analysis Component). Thus, preliminary results from the CyMETEO service design and development will be also shown. Furthermore, another aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of the GNSS tropospheric analysis component of the CyMETEO system over Nicosia district, prior to its deployment. For this purpose, GNSS tropospheric product (IWV) as deriving from the hyper-dense CYGMEN GNSS station network will be validated by being compared with respective IWV values obtained from Nicosia Radiosonde station, as well as from ERA5 Reanalysis datasets.