Description

GNSS is commonly used as a positioning tool, which are negatively degraded by reflected signals from nearby objects from buildings and other surfaces. GNSS reflectometry reverses this paradigm by considering the reflected noise as a source of signal. The noise of the reflections contain information on the geometry and reflective properties of the signal.

In this thesis, the student will help building a raspberry Pi powered GNSS receiver, which is to be installed at the Speulderbos observatory. An observational time series will be constructed and the data will be analyzed by the student. The student will try to see if the canopy height can be detected from the data series and what accuracies are obtainable. This will be partly achieved by creating a reference dataset by observing (e.g. with a laser ranger or total station) the tree heights from the tower, such that possible height biases in the detection algorithm may be computed.

Objectives and Methodology

* Get acquainted with GNSS reflectometry
* Help building a raspberry pi powered gnss reflectometer receiver
* Create a validation dataset of tree top heights. Write an observation plan.
* Analyze reflected GNSS signals from the receiver
* Explain the received signals in terms of geophysical properties of the canopy and surface

Further reading