Investigating the Impact of Coherent and Incoherent Scattering Terms in GNSS-R Delay Doppler Maps

Forward scattering properties of Earth-reflected Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals are evaluated over land surfaces. The CYclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) End-to-End Simulator (E2ES) is updated. A GNSS-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) model capable of evaluating both the incoherent and the coherent scattering terms is developed based on the Huygens-Kirchhoff principle. The coherent term is studied for incidence angles θ
_i
~ [0, 80]° over a wide range of surface height standard deviation σ = [1, 4] cm and Vegetation Optical Depth VOD = [0, 1.5]. This model is validated over a lake with space-borne data as generated using the CYGNSS raw IF processor. Results demonstrate the impact of higher order Fresnel zones on the spatial resolution of GNSS-R over heterogenous areas, showing “ringing” fluctuations in the reflected power near high contrast boundaries. We expect to contribute to the accurate interpretation of datasets over inland water bodies.