A Phase-Altimetric Simulator: Studying the Sensitivity of Earth-Reflected GNSS Signals to Ocean Topography: Fid-Bau Portal

A Phase-Altimetric Simulator: Studying the Sensitivity of Earth-Reflected GNSS Signals to Ocean Topography

Semmling, Aaron Maximilian

This paper presents a simulation study on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) reflections focusing on a phase altimetric method for ocean topography retrieval. It examines carrier phase residuals of Earth-reflected GNSS signals in preparation for the GNSS Reflectometry Radio Occultation and Scatterometry experiment aboard the International Space Station (GEROS-ISS). The residuals' sensitivity to ocean topography (maximum of 2-m amplitude variation of global sea level) is shown. A trigonometric approach to determine the specular reflection point is proposed. Reflection events are simulated assuming different low Earth orbit receivers and GNSS-type transmitters. Suitable events for phase altimetry are assumed between 5° and 30° elevation lasting between 10 and 15 min with ground tracks length of > 3000 km. Typical along-track footprints (1 s integration time) have a length of about 5 km. Within the assumed elevation range the coherent footprint ellipse has a major axis between 1 and 6 km. A Master-Slave sampling is proposed to approximate large-scale delay and Doppler variations of the reflected signal (Slave channel) relative to the direct signal (Master channel). Slave residuals of an example event are simulated to retrieve a small-scale phase delay for ocean topography inversion. The signal-to-noise ratio restricts the quality of the topography results. Height precision on sub-decimeter level for 30-dB SNR is degraded up to a meter level for 20-dB SNR. Ionosphere-free linear combination allows keeping the precision level. Troposphere refraction degrades precision particularly at the low elevation limit. Precision improves toward higher elevations. The tolerance to ocean roughness decreases in the same way.