Wind Speed Retrieval Method for Shipborne GNSS-R

Abstract

This study presents a sea surface wind speed retrieval method for the maritime environment, using forward-scattering signals from the global navigation satellite system (GNSS), which benefits from reduced costs compared with active radar detection. Most retrieval algorithms for GNSS-reflectometry (GNSS-R)-based wind measurement technique have predominantly focused on spaceborne and airborne platforms, whereas research related to shipborne platforms is relatively lacking. However, owing to the low altitude of shipborne receiving equipment, the Glistening Zone is concentrated in a small chip range. Therefore, based on the different slopes' change in the front and rear stages of the time-delay waveforms, a threshold wind speed retrieval algorithm was established to improve the retrieval accuracy of shipborne GNSS-R. The experimental results using an actual ship show that the algorithm produces smaller root-mean-square error and mean error, and a maximum deviation of less than 2 m/s.