Spaceborne GNSS Reflectometry

Abstract

This article presents a review on spaceborne Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R), which is an important part of GNSS-R technology and has attracted great attention from academia, industry and government agencies in recent years. Compared with ground-based and airborne GNSS-R approaches, spaceborne GNSS-R has a number of advantages, including wide coverage and the ability to sense medium- and large-scale phenomena such as ocean eddies, hurricanes and tsunamis. Since 2014, about seven satellite missions have been successfully conducted and a large number of spaceborne data were recorded. Accordingly, the data have been widely used to carry out a variety of studies for a range of useful applications, and significant research outcomes have been generated. This article provides an overview of these studies with a focus on the basic methods and techniques in the retrieval of a number of geophysical parameters and the detection of several objects. The challenges and future prospects of spaceborne GNSS-R are also addressed.

Keywords

• GNSS reflectometry
• satellite data
• ocean wind speed
• sea surface height
• soil moisture
• significant wave height