Detection and processing of bistatically reflected GPS signals from low Earth orbit for the purpose of ocean remote sensing

Gleason, S., Hodgart, S., Sun, Y., Gommenginger, C., Mackin, S., Adjrad, M. and Unwin, M. (2005) Detection and processing of bistatically reflected GPS signals from low Earth orbit for the purpose of ocean remote sensing. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 43 (6), 1229-1241. (doi:10.1109/TGRS.2005.845643).

Abstract

We will show that ocean-reflected signals from the global positioning system (GPS) navigation satellite constellation can be detected from a low-earth orbiting satellite and that these signals show rough correlation with independent measurements of the sea winds. We will present waveforms of ocean-reflected GPS signals that have been detected using the experiment onboard the United Kingdom's Disaster Monitoring Constellation satellite and describe the processing methods used to obtain their delay and Doppler power distributions. The GPS bistatic radar experiment has made several raw data collections, and reflected GPS signals have been found on all attempts. The down linked data from an experiment has undergone extensive processing, and ocean-scattered signals have been mapped across a wide range of delay and Doppler space revealing characteristics which are known to be related to geophysical parameters such as surface roughness and wind speed. Here we will discuss the effects of integration time, reflection incidence angle and examine several delay-Doppler signal maps. The signals detected have been found to be in general agreement with an existing model (based on geometric optics) and with limited independent measurements of sea winds; a brief comparison is presented here. These results demonstrate that the concept of using bistatically reflected global navigation satellite systems signals from low earth orbit is a viable means of ocean remote sensing.

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