Assessment of Spire Global GNSS-RO and GNSS-R Measurements for Ionosphere and Earth Surface Remote Sensing Applications

This presentation will focus on the assessment of processing and analysis of Spire Global CubeSats GNSS radio occultation (GNSS-RO) and grazing angle reflectometry (GNSS-R) measurements. Spire Global CubeSats have been generating high-rate, open loop grazing angle GNSS-RO and GNSS-R measurements since January 2019. Dual-frequency carrier phase estimations have been derived from the Spire CubeSat data and demonstrated the potential for applications ranging from precision altimetry over oceans, rivers, sea ice, and glaciers to high latitude ionospheric total electron content (TEC) and scintillation observations. This presentation will discuss GNSS signal processing techniques to improve the quality of the GNSS-RO and GNSS-R measurements, indicators to quantify the usability of the measurements for high precision applications, and examples showcasing the retrieval of ocean and sea ice surface height variations, river surface gradient, and high latitude ionospheric TEC and space weather event mapping. Challenges and future recommendations for low cost CubeSat-based GNSS remote sensing applications are also highlighted.