Performance of GNSS-based altimetry using airborne experimental data

This paper focuses on sea surface height (SSH) estimation using GNSS direct and reflected signals observed via an airborne receiver. A power-ratio-based method is presented to compute the relative delay of the reflected signal, which is then used to estimate the SSH. The power ratio is defined as the ratio of the correlation power at the code phase over the peak correlation power. Preliminary results from processing airborne experimental data collected over duration of 1 minute demonstrate that the mean power ratios associated with four satellites are very similar. When such a single constant mean power ratio is used to estimate the relative delay and the SSH, the mean of the SSH estimation errors is 4.5cm and the error standard deviation (STD) is 1.08m in the presence of significant wave height of about 4 metres.