WORKED

Precipitable water is primarily measured using radiosondes, ground-based global positioning systems (GPS), sun photometers, and microwave radiometry (MWRI). This limits the number of precipitable water measurement sites, which affects forecast accuracy in regards to storm formation, strength, and the potential for precipitation. Socorro, NM is among the sites that do not have the capability to measure precipitable water. Our research builds upon a previous study which determined an exponential relationship between infrared clear sky temperature measurements and precipitable water over the Gulf Coast of Texas. We are analyzing this relationship for the climate zone found in Socorro, NM. Daily ground and clear sky temperature measurements are being taken with low-cost infrared thermometers. Radiosonde precipitable water measurements from Albuquerque and Santa Teresa NWS monitoring sites are input into our dataset and analysed via our newly developed computational tool; which shows that..

Primary location: Los Alamos United States