Meteorological investigations using global positioning systems (GPS) based on permanent networks that are expensive to develop globally on Earth. This study confirmed that a single station GPS meteorology was feasible where there was no possibility for the development of a sophisticated, reliable GPS network. In Sulawesi, there are several GPS stations. Since 2009 GPS stations and meteorological sensors have been installed in Makassar and Bitung by the Indonesian Geospatial Information Agency. GPS data is processed to estimate the zenith troposphere delay (ZTD) of GPS signals in the troposphere. The ZTD estimate is then automatically converted to stored precipitable water vapor (PWV) using goGPS software. This study applies two types of validation for PWV calculations, namely validation with radiosonde and validation with ECMWV. All of them proved the validity of the GPS results: (1) PWV measured using radiosondes, both in Makassar and Bitung, showing a correlation of 96.5 and 83.0 GPS PWV time series. (2) a global reanalysis dataset was showing correlations of 60.1 and 75.3, respectively, with GPS results. This validation shows that a permanent GPS network can be an alternative to get temporally more detailed and accurate meteorological data and lower costs and time-saving operations.

Keywords : GPS; Meteorology; PWV; Radiosonde; GoGPS.