Wayan Suparta Profile's: GPS Meteorology

Wayan Suparta Profile's: GPS Meteorology: GPS Meteorology by Wayan Suparta The book can be found here . In terms of concept, GPS meteorology has been introduced by Bevis et al. (...

GPS Meteorology

GPS Meteorology by Wayan Suparta

The book can be found here. In terms of concept, GPS meteorology has been introduced by Bevis et al. (1992). Brief of concept explanation is now appear at wikipedia. The book describing how that GPS meteorology can be applied for atmospheric studies in Antarctica. Antarctica is the coldest, driest, windiest, and most isolated continent on Earth. It is situated in the region of the Southern Hemisphere, where Earth magnetic field is very strong than the equator region. The concept is using the GPS receiver and meteorological sensors to measure the water vapor content in the atmosphere. For ground-based, the system is placed at fixed location on the Earth, and for the space-based it is placed at low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite. The purpose is to measure precipitable water vapor (PWV) globally with high temporal and spatial variation and capable used as an indicator of global climate change as well as to support space weather prediction [1]. The data obtained would be valuable for meteorological applications such as improving numerical weather prediction (NWP), nowcasting and forecasting, and viable use to study the thunderstorms, flooding, natural climate variability (global warming, climate change and El Niño–Southern Oscillation), precipitation budget, teleconnections, terrestrial coupling, etc. For ground-based how the system work? When the radio signals traveling through the Earth’s atmosphere to a receiver on the ground, it is retarded and affected significantly by the presence of free electrons in the ionosphere and the refraction. The refraction of the GPS signal is induced by refractivity of gases, hydrometeors, and other particulates in the neutral atmosphere (the troposphere and stratosphere). During the propagation, the difference between transmits time and receiver time is so-called pseudorange. Accurate pseudorange determination from GPS data is required to account all of these propagation effects and time offsets. For detail, you can find here the concept. Figure 1 shows how to setup the measurement system for PWV based on the ground-based GPS meteorology.

Why we use the GPS? As mentioned above, the data provided is with high resolution and capable used not only for the study of lower atmosphere phenomena, but it can use to study the dynamic of upper atmosphere through total electron content (TEC) as one of indicators. The system is relatively stable for long duration (3~5 years) without any calibration. As long as no disruption on electricity and PC, the system is fine in recording the data. For studying the lower atmosphere dynamics, we also successfully develop one-system that can compute the GPS meteorology parameters which include PWV, ZTD, ZWD and ZHD, so-called the Tropospheric Water Vapor program (TroWav). The source code for TEC calculation was also developed using MATLAB.

Wayan Suparta (born in Klungkung, Bali, Indonesia) is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Space Science (ANGKASA), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (2012 - present). He was appointed as a senior lecturer (July 2008 - March 2012) and Post Doctoral Fellow in 2007-2008 at the same Institute and university. He obtained his PhD in March 2008 in the field of Electronics Communication and remote sensing application (GPS Meteorology) from the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UKM. He started his career as a teacher of Physics, Electronics and Computer in SMUK Cor Jesu Malang (1994-1997), Teacher of Physics and Electronics in SMUK Santo Aloysius Bandung (1997-2000), and at the same time he was a part time lecturer at many universities in Bandung by lecturing subjects: Instrumentation physics, Basic Electronics and Web design. After completing his Master's Degree in 2000 at the Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB) in the field of semiconductor electronics (physics), he then appointed as a Lecturer of Engineering Electronic (2000-2004) at the Legenda College Group, Malaysia that has collaborated with University Technology of Malaysia (UTM). He obtained his degree in Physics Instrumentation (1994) and Diploma (1991) from the University of Sanata Dharma, Yogyakarta. His employment experiences were including the lecturing on the subject of physics and computers, instrumentation and microelectronics. Besides more than 15 years experience in lecturing, he also conducted research with more than 12 years experience. His current research interest includes advanced geophysics, satellite remote sensing application, natural disasters, solar terrestrial physics, modeling of satellite disturbances for Near Equatorial Orbit (NEqO) inclination, soft computing (neural network) and near field communication (NFC). His previous research focused on the Polar Sciences that investigated the tropospheric-ionospheric propagation and application of GPS sensing technique for solar-terrestrial studies through the vantage point on Earth, i.e. Polar (Antarctic-Arctic) and Equatorial regions. He also interests to monitor lightning activity, landslide deformation and crops production using GPS. Started in 2003 and in 2010, he was found a new method to correlate the upper and lower levels of the atmosphere based on GPS sensing technique. This method was awarded with a bronze medal by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 2011. In January 2011, he has also published a book with title "Remote sensing of solar Influence on Antarctic terrestrial climate from a GPS Perspective" by Nova Science Publishers, New York, USA, “GPS Meteorology: Concept & Application” by LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing (April 24, 2012), Germany and “ANGKASA Graduate Studies Guide Book” published by the Institute of Space Science (ANGKASA), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (Second Edition, June 16, 2013). In the national and international level, he is a member of the National Antarctic Program in Malaysian Antarctic Research Programme (MARP), International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology (IACSIT), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and senior members of Asia-Pacific Chemical, Biological & Environmental Engineering Society (APCBEES). He also has won several prizes publications held by National Space Agency Malaysia in the category of Professional Research Paper in the field of Space Application: (1) Presentation in Conference (2006) with title: “A new method for correlating solar activity and terrestrial climate using GPS sensing at Antarctica”, (2) The first winner for Publication in magazine/journal/e-journal (2008) with title: “Observations of Antarctic precipitable water vapor and its response to the solar activity based on GPS sensing”, (3) The third winner for Publication in magazine/journal/e-journal (2010) with title: “Solar forcing on Antarctic terrestrial climate", (4) Professional Research Paper in the field of Space Application (Presentation in Conference) entitled: “Proposed physical mechanism for upper-lower atmospheric coupling from GPS perspective”, Agensi Angkasa Negara (ANGKASA), MOSTI, 2012, (5) best paper award for cluster: Pure Science and Medicine with title "A proposed physical mechanism for upper –lower atmospheric coupling using Global Positioning System via Polar regions" in the Seminar Hasil Penyelidikan Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi 2012 (SHP-KPT 2012), 8-9 November 2012, Malaysia, and (6) Bronze medal (2012), GPS-based Physical Mechanism Proposed for Upper-Lower Atmospheric Coupling Studies, Ekspo Pemacuan Kegemilangan Warisan Ilmu UKM. Before that, he had won the bronze medal for research "Polar-Equatorial Ionospheric and Magnetic Storms Characterization for the Advancement of Space Weather Prediction (Geospace Characterization)", IPTA R&D EXPO 2005, PWTC, Kuala Lumpur, hosted by MOSTI Malaysia. He has publication more than 50 papers indexed by SCOPUS and ISI Web of Science, and two chapters in book. His big ideas and the greatest struggle is how the people can change their traditional mindset to a scientific mindset to be vigilant in carrying out its activities with the use of early warning weather information as part of their daily menu.