Local Sea Level Observations Using Reflected GNSS Signals
Doctoral thesis, 2014

Sea level rise due to global warming is predicted to have a large impact on human society, especially for populations living in coastal regions and on islands. It is therefore of great importance to monitor the sea level and to increase the understanding of the local hydrodynamic and meteorological responses to a global sea level rise. The focus of this thesis is to estimate the local sea level using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals reflected off the sea surface. These signals were recorded in two different ways using a GNSS tide gauge at the Onsala Space Observatory, consisting of standard geodetic-type commercially off-the-shelf GNSS equipment. First, the phase-delay of the reflected GNSS signals were recorded directly with a receiver connected to a nadir-looking antenna. Together with the phase-delay of the direct signals, recorded with a receiver connected to a zenith-looking antenna, standard geodetic analysis provided GNSS sea level observations. Second, the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) recorded with the receiver connected to the zenith-looking antenna, provided an indirect measurement of the reflected GNSS signals, as the reflected signals interfered with the direct GNSS signals and affected the recorded observables. From analysis of the multipath oscillations, an additional type of sea level observation was possible. Furthermore, the SNR-analysis method allowed other GNSS stations, located close to the ocean, in different parts of the world to become GNSS tide gauges. The GNSS-derived sea level from the GNSS tide gauge at the observatory was compared with independent observations of sea level from co-located traditional tide gauges, showing a high level of agreement with correlation coefficients of 0.89-0.99. The sea level results from the phase-delay analysis performed better with respect to the traditional sea level records than the results from the SNR-analysis. As an example, the Root-Mean-Square (RMS) differences from 1 month of observations between the GNSS-derived sea level (using frequency band L1) and the sea level from the co-located tide gauge were 3.2-3.5 cm and 4.0-4.7 cm for the phase-delay analysis and the SNR-analysis, respectively. Sea level results applying the SNR-analysis for data of 5 different GNSS stations around the world were compared to independent co-located traditional tide gauge records. The results showed RMS differences on the order of 6.2 cm for stations with low tidal ranges (up to 165 cm) and 43 cm for stations with high tidal ranges (up to 772 cm). In this case, an extended SNR-analysis approach was applied, modelling a time dependent sea level.

GNSS-R

signal-to-noise ratio

sea level

GNSS

reflected signals

multipath

GPS

GLONASS

tide gauge

phase-delay

Sal EC, Hörsalsvägen 11 (EDIT-huset)
Opponent: Dr. Professor Kosuke Heki, Department of Natural History Sciences, Hokkaido University, Japan

Author

Johan Löfgren

Chalmers, Earth and Space Sciences, Space Geodesy and Geodynamics

Monitoring coastal sea level using reflected GNSS signals

Advances in Space Research,; Vol. 47(2011)p. 213-220

Journal article

Three months of local sea level derived from reflected GNSS signals

Radio Science,; Vol. 46(2011)

Journal article

Coastal Sea Level Measurements Using a Single Geodetic GPS Receiver

Advances in Space Research,; Vol. 51(2013)p. 1301-1310

Journal article

Sea level measurements using multi-frequency GPS and GLONASS observations

Eurasip Journal on Advances in Signal Processing,; Vol. 2014(2014)

Journal article

Subject Categories

Other Engineering and Technologies

Earth and Related Environmental Sciences

Geophysics

Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

Oceanography, Hydrology, Water Resources

Signal Processing

Roots

Basic sciences

ISBN

978-91-7385-955-4

Doktorsavhandlingar vid Chalmers tekniska högskola. Ny serie: 3637

Sal EC, Hörsalsvägen 11 (EDIT-huset)

Opponent: Dr. Professor Kosuke Heki, Department of Natural History Sciences, Hokkaido University, Japan

More information

Created

10/6/2017