Initial Evaluation of PlanetiQ Grazing GNSS Coherent Reflections for Altimetry Applications

The exploitation of commercial radio occultations (RO) using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver on SmallSat constellations enable GNSS-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) based all-weather altimetry applications for climate observables at high spatiotemporal resolutions. Utilization of dual-frequency GNSS-R coherent phase observation potentially enables several cm-level geodetic quality altimetric applications. These GNSS bistatic radar phase altimetric measurements could be at low latency, with dense spatially coverage, and capable of synoptic profiling of inland water bodies, sea ice and glaciated surfaces.