Precision Bounds in GNSS-R Ocean Altimetry

Author

Pascual, D. ; Camps, A. ; Martin, F. ; Hyuk Park ; Arroyo, Alberto Alonso ; Onrubia, R.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Signal Theor. & Commun., Univ. Politec. de Catalunya Barcelona-Tech, Barcelona, Spain

Volume

7

Issue

5

fYear

2014

fDate

May-14

Firstpage

1416

Lastpage

1423

Abstract

Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) signals offer a promising opportunity to perform mesoscale altimetry with worldwide coverage using small satellites. However, unlike the signals used in classical altimeters, the GNSS signals have smaller bandwidth and lower transmitted power. This paper analyzes the achievable height precision of the Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R) altimeters based on the Cramér-Rao bound for time-delay estimation. Precision bounds for the composite signals GPS L1 and L5 and Galileo E1, E5, and E6 in a spaceborne mission scenario are assessed, and the optimum receiver bandwidths which minimize them are obtained.

Keywords

oceanographic techniques; remote sensing; satellite navigation; Cramer-Rao bound; GNSS signals; GNSS-R ocean altimetry; GPS L1 composite signal; GPS L5 composite signal; Galileo E1 composite signal; Galileo E5 composite signal; Galileo E6 composite signal; Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry; classical altimeters; mesoscale altimetry; optimum receiver bandwidths; space-borne mission scenario; time-delay estimation; Bandwidth; Delays; Doppler effect; Global Positioning System; Receivers; Signal to noise ratio; Altimetry; Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R); Passive Reflectometry and Interferometry System (PARIS);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1939-1404

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSTARS.2014.2303251

Filename

6742726