{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,26]],"date-time":"2026-09-26T00:33:16Z","timestamp":1790382796242,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,31]],"date-time":"2021-12-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1640908800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This article is dedicated to the study of airborne GNSS-R signal processing techniques for water body detection and edge localization using a low-altitude airborne carrier with high rate reflectivity measurements. A GNSS-R setup on-board a carrier with reduced size and weight was developed for this application. We develop a radar technique for automatic GNSS signal segmentation in order to differentiate in-land water body surfaces based on the reflectivity measurements associated to different areas of reflection. Such measurements are derived from the GNSS signal amplitudes. We adapt a transitional model to characterize the changes in the measurements of the reflected GNSS signals from one area to another. We propose an on-line\/off-line change detection algorithm for GNSS signal segmentation. A real flight experimentation took place in the context of this work obtaining reflections from different surfaces and landforms. We show, using the airborne GNSS measurements obtained, that the proposed radar technique detects in-land water body surfaces along the flight trajectory with high temporal (50 Hz ) and spatial resolution (order of 10 to 100 m2). We also show that we can localize the edges of the detected water body surfaces at meter accuracy.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs14010163","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,1,9]],"date-time":"2022-01-09T23:06:15Z","timestamp":1641769575000},"page":"163","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Airborne GNSS Reflectometry for Water Body Detection"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3822-0394","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hamza","family":"Issa","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratoire d\u2019Informatique, Signal et Image de la C\u00f4te d\u2019Opale (LISIC), Universit\u00e9 du Littoral C\u00f4te d\u2019Opale (ULCO), 62228 Calais, France"},{"name":"National Council of Scientific Research (CNRS-L), Remote Sensing Research Center, Mansouriyeh 22411, Lebanon"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6757-8611","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Georges","family":"Stienne","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratoire d\u2019Informatique, Signal et Image de la C\u00f4te d\u2019Opale (LISIC), Universit\u00e9 du Littoral C\u00f4te d\u2019Opale (ULCO), 62228 Calais, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Serge","family":"Reboul","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratoire d\u2019Informatique, Signal et Image de la C\u00f4te d\u2019Opale (LISIC), Universit\u00e9 du Littoral C\u00f4te d\u2019Opale (ULCO), 62228 Calais, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8783-0474","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mohamad","family":"Raad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Engineering, Lebanese International University (LIU), Beirut 14404, Lebanon"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0741-0518","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ghaleb","family":"Faour","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Council of Scientific Research (CNRS-L), Remote Sensing Research Center, Mansouriyeh 22411, Lebanon"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Egido, A. (2014). GNSS Reflectometry for Land Remote Sensing Applications. [Ph.D. Thesis, Universitat Polit\u00e8cnica de Catalunya]."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5128","DOI":"10.1002\/2014JD021489","article-title":"Soil as a natural rain gauge: Estimating global rainfall from satellite soil moisture data","volume":"119","author":"Brocca","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res. Atmos."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"12398","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1204330109","article-title":"Hot days induced by precipitation deficits at the global scale","volume":"109","author":"Mueller","year":"2012","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"122","DOI":"10.1038\/nclimate2068","article-title":"El Ni\u00f1o\u2013La Ni\u00f1a cycle and recent trends in continental evaporation","volume":"4","author":"Miralles","year":"2014","journal-title":"Nat. Clim. Chang."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"507","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2004.05.016","article-title":"Initial results of land-reflected GPS bistatic radar measurements in SMEX02","volume":"92","author":"Masters","year":"2004","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_6","first-page":"140","article-title":"SMOS based high resolution soil moisture estimates for desert locust preventive management","volume":"11","author":"Escorihuela","year":"2018","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Appl. Soc. Environ."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Frappart, F., Zeiger, P., Betbeder, J., Gond, V., Bellot, R., Baghdadi, N., Blarel, F., Darrozes, J., Bourrel, L., and Seyler, F. (2021). Automatic detection of inland water bodies along altimetry tracks for estimating surface water storage variations in the Congo Basin. Remote Sens., 13.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs13193804"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"620","DOI":"10.1071\/MF17019","article-title":"Global extent and distribution of wetlands: Trends and issues","volume":"69","author":"Davidson","year":"2018","journal-title":"Mar. Freshw. Res."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"773","DOI":"10.1007\/s13157-013-0473-2","article-title":"How wetlands affect floods","volume":"33","author":"Acreman","year":"2013","journal-title":"Wetlands"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"17","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2005.09.015","article-title":"Utilizing calibrated GPS reflected signals to estimate soil reflectivity and dielectric constant: Results from SMEX02","volume":"100","author":"Katzberg","year":"2006","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_11","first-page":"331","article-title":"A passive reflectometry and interferometry system (PARIS): Application to ocean altimetry","volume":"17","year":"1993","journal-title":"ESA J."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"20","DOI":"10.1016\/j.gloplacha.2016.12.010","article-title":"Sea level change from BeiDou Navigation Satellite System-Reflectometry (BDS-R): First results and evaluation","volume":"149","author":"Jin","year":"2017","journal-title":"Glob. Planet. Chang."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2927","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2008.02.003","article-title":"A new technique to sense non-Gaussian features of the sea surface from L-band bi-static GNSS reflections","volume":"112","author":"Cardellach","year":"2008","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"50","DOI":"10.1109\/36.981349","article-title":"Wind speed measurement using forward scattered GPS signals","volume":"40","author":"Garrison","year":"2002","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2088","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2007.898257","article-title":"Potential synergetic use of GNSS-R signals to improve the sea-state correction in the sea surface salinity estimation: Application to the SMOS mission","volume":"45","author":"Sabia","year":"2007","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"122","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2012.05.012","article-title":"Characterization of dry-snow sub-structure using GNSS reflected signals","volume":"124","author":"Cardellach","year":"2012","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rodriguez-Alvarez, N., Aguasca, A., Valencia, E., Bosch-Lluis, X., Ramos-P\u00e9rez, I., Park, H., Camps, A., and Vall-Llossera, M. (2011, January 24\u201329). Snow monitoring using GNSS-R techniques. Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Vancouver, BC, Canada.","DOI":"10.1109\/IGARSS.2011.6050201"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1548","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2009.2029342","article-title":"Bistatic scattering of GPS signals off Arctic sea ice","volume":"48","author":"Rivas","year":"2009","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1552","DOI":"10.1109\/LGRS.2017.2722041","article-title":"Coastal sea ice detection using ground-based GNSS-R","volume":"14","author":"Strandberg","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Geosci. Remote Sens. Lett."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"210","DOI":"10.3390\/rs1030210","article-title":"Soil moisture retrieval from active spaceborne microwave observations: An evaluation of current techniques","volume":"1","author":"Barrett","year":"2009","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_21","first-page":"150","article-title":"Performance of GNSS-R GLORI data for biomass estimation over the Landes forest","volume":"74","author":"Zribi","year":"2019","journal-title":"Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Edokossi, K., Calabia, A., Jin, S., and Molina, I. (2020). GNSS-Reflectometry and Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture: A Review of Measurement Techniques, Methods, and Applications. Remote Sens., 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12040614"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mironov, V.L., Fomin, S.V., Muzalevskiy, K.V., Sorokin, A.V., and Mikhaylov, M. (2012, January 22\u201327). The use of navigation satellites signals for determination the characteristics of the soil and forest canopy. Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Munich, Germany.","DOI":"10.1109\/IGARSS.2012.6351890"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"525","DOI":"10.1007\/s10291-015-0462-4","article-title":"An algorithm for soil moisture estimation using GPS-interferometric reflectometry for bare and vegetated soil","volume":"20","author":"Chew","year":"2016","journal-title":"GPS Solut."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"173","DOI":"10.1007\/s10291-007-0076-6","article-title":"Using GPS multipath to measure soil moisture fluctuations: Initial results","volume":"12","author":"Larson","year":"2008","journal-title":"GPS Solut."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Malik, J.S., Jingrui, Z., and Naqvi, N.A. (2017, January 14\u201316). Soil moisture content estimation using GNSS reflectometry (GNSS-R). Proceedings of the 2017 Fifth International Conference on Aerospace Science & Engineering (ICASE), Islamabad, Pakistan.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICASE.2017.8374264"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2356","DOI":"10.3390\/rs4082356","article-title":"Global navigation satellite systems reflectometry as a remote sensing tool for agriculture","volume":"4","author":"Egido","year":"2012","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_28","first-page":"71","article-title":"Land geophysical parameters retrieval using the interference pattern GNSS-R technique","volume":"49","author":"Camps","year":"2010","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1533","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTARS.2014.2320792","article-title":"Dual-polarization GNSS-R interference pattern technique for soil moisture mapping","volume":"7","author":"Arroyo","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Obs. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4752","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTARS.2016.2584092","article-title":"Estimation of surface characteristics using GNSS LH-reflected signals: Land versus water","volume":"9","author":"Jia","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Obs. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Munoz-Martin, J.F., Onrubia, R., Pascual, D., Park, H., Pablos, M., Camps, A., R\u00fcdiger, C., Walker, J., and Monerris, A. (2021). Single-Pass Soil Moisture Retrieval Using GNSS-R at L1 and L5 Bands: Results from Airborne Experiment. Remote Sens., 13.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs13040797"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1522","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTARS.2014.2322854","article-title":"Airborne GNSS-R polarimetric measurements for soil moisture and above-ground biomass estimation","volume":"7","author":"Egido","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Obs. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9954","DOI":"10.3390\/rs70809954","article-title":"On the synergy of airborne GNSS-R and Landsat 8 for soil moisture estimation","volume":"7","author":"Piles","year":"2015","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jia, Y., Savi, P., Pei, Y., and Notarpietro, R. (2015, January 16\u201318). GNSS reflectometry for remote sensing of soil moisture. Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE 1st International Forum on Research and Technologies for Society and Industry Leveraging a Better Tomorrow (RTSI), Turin, Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/RTSI.2015.7325147"},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"964","DOI":"10.1007\/s11434-015-0789-9","article-title":"Initial results of China\u2019s GNSS-R airborne campaign: Soil moisture retrievals","volume":"60","author":"Wan","year":"2015","journal-title":"Sci. Bull."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Motte, E., Zribi, M., Fanise, P., Egido, A., Darrozes, J., Al-Yaari, A., Baghdadi, N., Baup, F., Dayau, S., and Fieuzal, R. (2016). GLORI: A GNSS-R dual polarization airborne instrument for land surface monitoring. Sensors, 16.","DOI":"10.3390\/s16050732"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"28287","DOI":"10.3390\/s151128287","article-title":"Prototyping a GNSS-based passive radar for UAVs: An instrument to classify the water content feature of lands","volume":"15","author":"Marucco","year":"2015","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jia, Y., and Pei, Y. (2018). Remote Sensing in Land Applications by Using GNSS-Reflectometry. Recent Advances and Applications in Remote Sensing, IntechOpen.","DOI":"10.5772\/intechopen.72901"},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chew, C., Colliander, A., Shah, R., Zuffada, C., and Burgin, M. (2017, January 23\u201328). The sensitivity of ground-reflected GNSS signals to near-surface soil moisture, as recorded by spaceborne receivers. Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), Fort Worth, TX, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/IGARSS.2017.8127544"},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Camps, A., Park, H., Portal, G., and Rossato, L. (2018). Sensitivity of TDS-1 GNSS-R reflectivity to soil moisture: Global and regional differences and impact of different spatial scales. Remote Sens., 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs10111856"},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2227","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTARS.2019.2895510","article-title":"Analysis of CYGNSS data for soil moisture retrieval","volume":"12","author":"Clarizia","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Obs. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Calabia, A., Molina, I., and Jin, S. (2020). Soil Moisture Content from GNSS Reflectometry Using Dielectric Permittivity from Fresnel Reflection Coefficients. Remote Sens., 12.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12010122"},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4049","DOI":"10.1029\/2018GL077905","article-title":"Soil moisture sensing using spaceborne GNSS reflections: Comparison of CYGNSS reflectivity to SMAP soil moisture","volume":"45","author":"Chew","year":"2018","journal-title":"Geophys. Res. Lett."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"107992","DOI":"10.1016\/j.sigpro.2021.107992","article-title":"A probabilistic model for on-line estimation of the GNSS carrier-to-noise ratio","volume":"183","author":"Issa","year":"2021","journal-title":"Signal Process."},{"key":"ref_45","unstructured":"Basseville, M., and Nikiforov, I.V. (1993). Detection of Abrupt Changes-Theory and Application, Prentice Hall, Inc."},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gustafsson, F. (2000). Adaptive Filtering and Change Detection, John Wiley & Sons Ltd.","DOI":"10.1002\/0470841613"},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"100","DOI":"10.1093\/biomet\/41.1-2.100","article-title":"Continuous Inspection Schemes","volume":"41","author":"Page","year":"1954","journal-title":"Biometrika"}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/14\/1\/163\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T07:56:30Z","timestamp":1760169390000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/14\/1\/163"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,31]]},"references-count":47,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,1]]}},"alternative-id":["rs14010163"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs14010163","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-4292","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,31]]}}}