An Application of IGS Zenith Tropospheric Delay Data to Propagation Studies: Validation of Radiometric Atmospheric Attenuation

The objective of this paper is to continue exploring the use of International GNSS Service (IGS) products as a tool to be used in Earth-space propagation experiments. With this purpose, 4 years of Zenith Tropospheric Delay data from IGS Villafranca station, in Madrid, Spain, have been processed with the aim to estimate the attenuation due to gases. These values are then used for the validation of a concurrent database of 4 years of radiometric measurements at 19.7 GHz, collected at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) with the purpose of studying the attenuation effects of gases and clouds. The suggested validation procedure includes both an automatic routine and visual inspection. The validated measurements are statistically analyzed on a yearly and seasonal basis. Results point toward the usefulness of IGS data in propagation experiments as well as their integration in their processing routines.