Response of GNSS-R on Dynamic Vegetated Terrain Conditions

Global navigation satellite system reflectometry (GNSS-R) has the potential to offer a cost-effective solution for global land observations. In this study, we aim to understand GNSS-R sensitivity to changing land geophysical parameters. For this objective, we performed simulations of a ground-based receiver using a recently developed coherent bistatic vegetation scattering model (SCoBi-Veg) to detect GNSS-R signatures under varying soil moisture (SM), vegetation water content (VWC), and surface roughness during a full corn growing season. We modeled different corn growth stages by using in situ measurement data. We analyzed the simulated reflectivity and received power values based on the aforementioned variable input parameters. This study demonstrates that specular reflections dominate the diffusely scattered contribution in case of moderate roughness, regardless of the corn field row structure or the polarization. Significant correlations between VWC and cross-polarized reflectivity values are also shown. Furthermore, the study quantifies the effects of SM and surface roughness on GNSS-R deliverables.