An Adaptive Non-Uniform Vertical Stratification Method for Troposphere Water Vapor Tomography
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
It is introduced an adaptive non-uniform vertical stratification method for troposphere water vapor tomography which when is compared with the traditional stratification method, the root mean square error derived from the proposed approach is reduced by 0.26 g/m3. However, the research methodology presented here does not include a narrative that contemplates other developments that may contain aspects related to this research and that must be discussed and presented in a comparative table in the section of obtained results. The following is a non-exhaustive list of other related research.
- Hybrid Regularized GPS Tropospheric Sensing Using 3-D Ray Tracing Technique. Saeid Haji-Aghajany and Yazdan Amerian. Using hybrid regularization techniques reduces the root mean square of the results of common regularization methods by an average of 0.39 g/m3.
- A new integrated method of GNSS and MODIS measurements for tropospheric water vapor tomography. Wenyuan Zhang, Shubi Zhang, Nanshan Zheng, Nan Ding, Xin Liu. It is noted that when using the proposed approach, the mean root-mean-square error (RMSE) of the 2D tomographic profiles is decreased by a value of about 1.06 g/m3
- Inclusion of Side Signals on GNSS Water Vapor Tomography with a New Height Factor Model. Wenyuan Zhang, Nan Ding and Shubi Zhang. The statistics suggest that the mean RMSE is reduced from 1.59 g/m3 to08 g/m3
Other aspects that the manuscript must present in detail are the following:
- Propose an adequate comparison of other existing methodologies related to this research, currently available with great potential for impact, clearly pointing out the advantages and disadvantages.
- Highlight the degree of maturity of this approach and the clarity of meeting the current need or deficiency in terms of technological availability.
- Discuss how long it will take for this development to be profitable, that is, how many years would your bet be.
- Explain the challenges for its technological implementation detailing what it would take to make this development a reality, putting its competitive advantages first.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
Thank you for your comments on our manuscript. These comments are very valuable and helpful for great improvements of the manuscript, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and modified the manuscript accordingly.
Please see the attachment:
(1)Revised Version: pages 1-22
(2)Response to Reviewer: pages 23-27
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript presents an improved way to stratify the tomographic region for GNSS water vapor tomography based on the exponential trend of the water vapor. In particular, they utilize pre-existing radiosonde data to fit the vertical distribution of atmospheric water vapor and consequently use this information to form the non-uniform intervals of the stratification based on an iterative approach. They access their methodology, called ANES, against the traditional uniform stratification method in terms of internal consistency and external comparison against the radiosonde data, and using five variations of it (ANES with minimum height intervals of 350, 375, 400, 425 and 450 m). All the tests show the superiority of the proposed methodology.
The research is sound, and I believe it is worthy of publishing in your journal as long as some minor issues are addressed:
Although the GNSS sites are well distributed in the area of interest, the radiosonde site which is used as a reference is only one and it raises the question of how reliable its data can be considered. Ideally, data of at least one more radiosonde would be available. If that is not possible for the case study then a few sentences on the error associated with the radiosonde data in terms of water vapor would be a desirable addition.
Based on the fact that pre-existing information for the water vapor vertical distribution is needed it would be useful if the authors contain in the conclusion a paragraph on the applicability of their methodology and potential alternatives in case radiosonde data are not available for a region of interest.
Some further justification of the results when it comes to the performance of the different variants of the ANES method is necessary for the reader to develop a better understating of how the proposed method works and its potential deficiencies. I have marked these areas in the manuscript.
Lastly, please refer to the comments and annotation on the pdf for further minor corrections and suggestions.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
Thank you for your comments on our manuscript. These comments are very valuable and helpful for great improvements of the manuscript, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and modified the manuscript accordingly.
Please see the attachment:
(1)Revised Version: pages 1-22
(2)Response to Reviewer: pages 23-26
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The paper deals with introduce an adaptive non-uniform stratification method that follows the exponential distribution of water vapor in the tomographic region and present the process of iterative calculation to acquire the optimal stratification interval.
The paper seems to be well thought and well explained. I do recommend this article for publication since I believe that generally, The paper is very interesting, the study is very well designed, the manuscript is well written and organized.
I suggest the paper for publication after thinking about the minor suggestions below.
Comments:
You should add more information about the adaptive non-uniform exponential stratification (ANES) method.
I missing the Discussion Section.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
Thank you for your comments on our manuscript. These comments are very valuable and helpful for great improvements of the manuscript, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and modified the manuscript accordingly.
Please see the attachment:
(1)Revised Version: pages 1-22
(2)Response to Reviewer: pages 23-25
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors of An Adaptive Non-uniform Vertical Stratification Method for Troposphere Water Vapor Tomography have incorporated the suggestions detected in the revision phase, therefore this reviewer has no problem recommending acceptance of the manuscript in its current form.
