DocumentCode :
71834
Title :
Snow Depth Estimation Based on Multipath Phase Combination of GPS Triple-Frequency Signals
Author :
Kegen Yu ; Wei Ban ; Xiaohong Zhang ; Xingwang Yu
Author_Institution :
Collaborative Innovation Center for Geospatial Technol., Wuhan Univ., Wuhan, China
Volume :
53
Issue :
9
fYear :
2015
fDate :
Sept. 2015
Firstpage :
5100
Lastpage :
5109
Abstract :
Snow is important to the ecological and climate systems; however, current snowfall and snow depth in situ observations are only available sparsely on the globe. By making use of the networks of Global Positioning System (GPS) stations established for geodetic applications, it is possible to monitor snow distribution on a global scale in an inexpensive way. In this paper, we propose a new snow depth estimation approach using a geodetic GPS station, multipath reflectometry and a linear combination of phase measurements of GPS triple-frequency (L1, L2, and L5) signals. This phase combination is geometry free and is not affected by ionospheric delays. Analytical linear models are first established to describe the relationship between antenna height and spectral peak frequency of combined phase time series, which are calculated based on theoretical formulas. When estimating snow depth in real time, the spectral peak frequency of the phase measurements is obtained, and then the model is used to determine snow depth. Two experimental data sets recorded in two different environments were used to test the proposed method. The results demonstrate that the proposed method shows an improvement with respect to existing methods on average.
Keywords :
hydrological techniques; remote sensing; snow; GPS station networks; GPS triple-frequency signals; Global Positioning System; analytical linear models; climate systems; ecological systems; geodetic GPS station; geodetic applications; ionospheric delays; multipath phase; multipath reflectometry; snow depth estimation; Antennas; Delays; Estimation; Global Positioning System; Satellites; Signal to noise ratio; Snow; Global Navigation Satellite Systems multipath reflectometry (GNSS-MR); multipath phase combination; snow depth estimation; triple-frequency signals;
fLanguage :
English
Journal_Title :
Geoscience and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on
Publisher :
ieee
ISSN :
0196-2892
Type :
jour
DOI :
10.1109/TGRS.2015.2417214
Filename :
7110570
Link To Document :
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