Vegetation Water Content Estimation Using GNSS Measurements

Author

Rodriguez-Alvarez, Nereida ; Bosch-Lluis, Xavier ; Camps, Adriano ; Ramos-Perez, Isaac ; Valencia, Enric ; Park, Hyuk ; Vall-llossera, Merce

Author_Institution

Dept. of Signal Theor. & Commun., Univ. Politec. de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain

Volume

9

Issue

2

fYear

2012

fDate

3/1/2012 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

282

Lastpage

286

Abstract

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) opportunity signals reflected at or near the Earth´s surface have already shown their potential to perform retrievals of a number of geophysical parameters. Radio occultations using GNSS signals are also used for atmospheric sensing. This letter presents a GNSS technique to retrieve vegetation water content (VWC). This technique measures the received powers of the GPS signals in open sky and under the vegetation layer. From these two powers, the attenuation due to the vegetation is computed, which is related to the VWC. This letter presents the results obtained after deploying the instrument in a walnut-tree stand for 11 months.

Keywords

Global Positioning System; hydrological techniques; remote sensing; vegetation; GNSS measurements; GNSS opportunity signals; Global Navigation Satellite Systems; VWC; atmospheric sensing; geophysical parameter retrieval; radio occultations; vegetation water content estimation; Attenuation; Global Navigation Satellite Systems; Global Positioning System; Instruments; Remote sensing; Vegetation; Vegetation mapping; Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS); vegetation; water content;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1545-598X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LGRS.2011.2166242

Filename

6034516