This study aims to describe the main objectives and activities of the research project BeRTISS (Balkan-Mediterranean Real Time Severe weather Service) funded by the European Territorial Cooperation Programme "Interreg V-B Balkan-Mediterranean 2014-2020". BeRTISS targets to establish the first transnational operational service for monitoring severe weather events in the Balkan-Mediterranean area by exploiting Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) tropospheric products. GNSS signals transmitted from satellites to the ground reference stations are delayed by ionosphere and water vapor in troposphere. Ionospheric propagation delay can be easily removed, while tropospheric delay needs to be calculated using surface pressure and temperature variables. By knowing the tropospheric delay the Precipitable Water Vapour (PWV) which is the most abundant greenhouse gas is easily assessed. GNSS derived PWV has been proved to be a valuable data source for Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models in order to detect rapid moisture increases at intervals between the available every 1-6 hours prediction model updates and therefore improve the accuracy of forecast. BeRTISS real-time service, which will comprise the extension of the existing European GNSS network of tropospheric products, will provide continuous information for nowcasting and forecasting for PWV over Greece, Bulgaria and Cyprus using the GNSS derived tropospheric products and WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) model.
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