The IEEE-SA Working Group on Spaceborne GNSS-R: Scene study

• Published in: IEEE Access
• Main Authors: Carreño Luengo, Hugo, Camps Carmona, Adriano José, Ruf, Chris, Floury, Nicolas, Martín Neira, Manuel, Wang, Tianlin, Khalsa, Siri Jodha, Clarizia, Maria Paola, Reynolds, Jennifer, Johnson, Joel, O’Brien, Andrew, Galdi, Carmela, di Bisceglie, Maurizio, Dielacher, Andreas
• Other Authors: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Departament de Teoria del Senyal i Comunicacions, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. RSLAB - Grup de Recerca en Teledetecció
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 2021
• Subjects: Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria de la telecomunicació::Radiocomunicació i exploració electromagnètica::Satèl·lits i ràdioenllaços; Artificial satellites; Standardization; GNSS-R; IEEE standards association; Satellite missions; Earth remote sensing; Satèl·lits artificials; Normalització; Andreas; Indian; Unwin; National Snow and Ice Data Center; Tundra
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2117/349676; https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3089762

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) created the GRSS “Standards for Earth Observation Technical Committee” to advance the usability of remote sensing products by experts from academia, industry, and government through the creation and promotion of standards and best practices. In February 2019, a Project Authorization Request was approved by the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) with the title “Standard for Spaceborne Global Navigation Satellite Systems Reflectometry (GNSS-R) Data and Metadata Content.” At present, 4 GNSS constellations cover the Earth with their navigation signals: The United States of America (USA) Global Positioning System GPS with 31 Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) operational satellites, the Russian GLObal’naya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema GLONASS with 24 MEO operational satellites, the European Galileo with 24 MEO operational satellites, and the Chinese BeiDou-3 with 3 Inclined GeoSynchronous Orbit (IGSO), 24 MEO, and 2 Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit (GEO) operational satellites. Additionally, several regional navigation constellations increase the number of available signals for remote sensing purposes: the Japanese Quasi-Zenith Satellite System QZSS with 1 GSO and 3 Tundra-type orbit operational satellites, and the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System IRNSS with 3 GEO and 4 IGSO operational satellites. On the other hand, there are different GNSS-R processing techniques, instruments and spaceborne missions, and a wide variety of retrieval algorithms have been used. The heterogeneous nature of these signals of opportunity as well as the numerous working methodologies justify the need of a standard to further advance in the development of GNSS-R towards an operational Earth Observation technique. In particular, the scope of this working group is to develop a standard for data and metadata content arising from past, present, and future spaceborne missions such as the United Kingdom (UK) TechDemoSat-1 TDS-1, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) CYclone Global Navigation Satellite System CYGNSS constellation coordinated by the University of Michigan (UM). In this article we describe the scene study, including fundamental aspects, scientific applications, and historical milestones. The spaceborne standard is under development and it will be published in IEEE-SA. This work was supported in part by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science Mission Directorate with the University of Michigan under Contract NNL13AQ00C. Peer Reviewed Article signat per 25 autors/es: Hugo Carreno-Luengo, University of Michigan (UM), Ann Arbor, MI, USA / Adriano Camps, CommSensLab-UPC, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain / Chris Ruf, University of Michigan (UM), Ann Arbor, MI, USA / Nicolas Floury, European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC), European Space Agency (ESA), Noordwijk, The Netherlands / Manuel Martin-Neira, European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC), European Space Agency (ESA), Noordwijk, The Netherlands / Tianlin Wang, University of Michigan (UM), Ann Arbor, MI, USA / Siri Jodha Khalsa, National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA / Maria Paola Clarizia, Deimos Space UK, Didcot, U.K. / Jennifer Reynolds, Deimos Space UK, Didcot, U.K. / Joel Johnson, Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA / Andrew O’Brien, Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA / Carmela Galdi, Universita degli Studi del Sannio, Benevento, Italy / Maurizio Di Bisceglie, Universita degli Studi del Sannio, Benevento, Italy / Andreas Dielacher, RUAG Space GmbH, Vienna, Austria / Philip Jales, Spire Global, Boulder, CO, USA / Martin Unwin, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL), Guildford, U.K. / Lucinda King, Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey, Guildford, U.K. / Giuseppe Foti, National Oceanography Center (NOC), Southampton, U.K. / Rashmi Shah, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA / Daniel Pascual, Deimos Space UK, Didcot, U.K. / Bill Schreiner, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), Boulder, CO, USA / Milad Asgarimehr, German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), Potsdam, Germany / Jens Wickert, German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), Potsdam, Germany, Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation Science, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany / Serni Ribo, Instiut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), Barcelona, Spain, Institute of Space Sciences (ICE), Barcelona, Spain / Estel Cardellach, Instiut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), Barcelona, Spain, Institute of Space Sciences (ICE), Barcelona, Spain. Postprint (published version)