Troposphere mapping functions for GPS and very long baseline interferometry from European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts operational analysis data

In the analyses of geodetic very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) and GPS data the analytic form used for mapping of the atmosphere delay from zenith to the line of site is most often a three‐parameter continued fraction in 1/sin(elevation). Using the 40 years reanalysis (ERA‐40) data of the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts for the year 2001, the b and c coefficients of the continued fraction form for the hydrostatic mapping functions have been redetermined. Unlike previous mapping functions based on data from numerical weather models (isobaric mapping functions (Niell, 2000) and Vienna mapping functions (VMF) (Boehm and Schuh, 2004)), the new c coefficients are dependent on the day of the…