Height precision prediction of the PARIS in orbit demonstrator based on Cramer-Rao bound analysis

The PARIS (Passive Reflectometry and Interferometry System) in orbit demonstrator is a novel altimeter concept recently proposed by the European Space Agency. PARIS has the primary objective of observing ocean mesoscale features using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) reflected signals, with an expected sea surface height estimation accuracy of about 20 cm, and with a very high simultaneous spatial-temporal sampling of the ocean. To date, the altimetry performance has been preliminary predicted by means of simple analytical methods, which rely on a number of assumptions on the estimators, not predicting the optimum performance. This paper will present a prediction of the height precision based on the statistical analysis of the well-known Cramer-Rao estimation bound.