In Eq. (1), a priori ZHD is evaluated from available surface
pressure using the modified Saastamoinen model
(Davis et al., 1985) and mfh and mfw are known mapping
functions relating the zenith delays with those in the slant
direction. For each observation, a combined ZTD value
is obtained, as the sum of the a priori ZHD and the estimated
ZWD. In principle, an error in the a priori ZHD will be absorbed by the estimated ZWD. However, for very low
elevation angles, the hydrostatic and wet mapping functions
will differ significantly and an error in ZHD cannot
be absorbed by ZWD, which then induces errors in station
position, mainly in height (Kouba, 2009b). Thus, in spite of
the small variability of the ZHD field when compared with
the variability of the wet component, precise GNSS positioning
and ZTD estimation require ZHD to be known
with high accuracy