Methodology ยท GNSS-R
GNSS reflectometry (GNSS-R)
Retrieves surface properties (ocean wind speed, soil moisture, sea ice extent, surface roughness) from reflected L-band navigation signals; good for global ocean wind monitoring and soil moisture at low constellation cost.
How it works
Bistatic radar using GPS/Galileo/BDS signals as sources of opportunity. Delay-Doppler maps encode surface roughness and dielectric properties. CYGNSS (2016) is the first dedicated constellation. L-band penetrates vegetation canopy better than shorter-wavelength active radar. [Wikipedia: GNSS reflectometry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNSS_reflectometry)
Topics this serves
- Sea ice adequate
- Soil moisture adequate
- Flooding marginal
Existing implementations
No implementations recorded yet.
Sources
- [wikipedia]Wikipedia: GNSS reflectometrycommunityaccessed 2026-05-22
Methodology
Edited from public sources. Last reviewed date pending by SpectraWorks editorial. See the data dictionary for field definitions.