POSSIBILITY OF REMOTE SENSING USING REFLECTED GPS SIGNAL

Dinesh Manandhar
Centre for Spatial Information Science, The University of Tokyo
5-1-5 Kashiwa-no-ha, Kashiwa shi, Chiba Ken, 277-8568
Tel: (81)-4-7136-4307 Fax: (81)-4-7136-4292
dinesh@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Masahiko Nagai
Centre for Spatial Information Science, The University of Tokyo

Ryosuke Shibasaki
Centre for Spatial Information Science, The University of Tokyo

KEY WORDS: GPS, Microwave Remote Sensing, Bi-Static Remote Sensing, Polarization

ABSTRACT: A reflected GPS signal is normally considered as noise. However, we believe that
a reflected signal contains information about the reflecting object. Though, this information may
not be useful for accurate position computation, it may help us to identify the reflecting object
itself, which is a type of remote sensing. GPS signals being in L-band have similar
characteristics shown by microwave remote sensing in L-band. In this paper, we present some
theoretical discussion of GPS signal for remote sensing, discussion about the experiments
conducted so far and results and discussions of the experiments. Finally, it is concluded that
GPS signals might be used for various remote sensing applications but it has it’s own limitations
as well due to the nature of the GPS signal itself like very low power and spread spectrum
modulation.

1 INTRODUCTION

GPS signal is in L-band (1.2-1.5GHz) and is designed for navigation purpose. A GPS signal is
extremely weak signal in terms of power at the receiver antenna, where as a microwave remote
sensing signals are relatively stronger. Also, most of the microwave remote sensing systems are
active type and they are designed primarily for remote sensing purpose. A GPS signal is
designed for navigation and there are possibilities to use this signal as a “signal-of-opportunity”
for other purposes than navigation, for example, remote sensing. GPS signal for remote sensing
application is a new concept as well as a new research area. Recent research results conducted
by various researchers have shown that it possible to use GPS signal for remote sensing
applications. The basic concept is to analyze the reflected GPS signal to detect the
characteristics of the reflecting object.

2 GPS SIGNAL CHARACTERISTICS

GPS signal which is an electromagnetic wave consists of electric and magnetic fields. The
polarization of the signal is defined by the direction of the electrical field vector. If the electrical
field vector is perpendicular to the direction of transmission, it is called vertical polarization,
and if the vector is parallel to the direction of transmission it is called horizontal polarization.
GPS signal is right hand circular polarization (RHCP), which means that the electrical field
vector describes a helix of a right hand screw along the direction of transmission. A circular
polarization can be represented by the combination of horizontal and vertical polarizations. The
polarization of an electromagnetic signal may changes after reflection depending upon the
reflecting material and incidence angle. Thus, the polarization may change from right hand
circular polarization (RHCP) to left hand circular polarization (LHCP) and vice versa. The
signal strength decreases as well for every reflection. Fig. 1 explains these characteristics based
on the theoretical simulation of horizontal and vertical polarization. Fig. 1 (left) shows
coefficient of reflection for dry ground, wet ground and water at different propagation angle for
horizontal and vertical polarization. In the case of horizontal polarization, the coefficient of
reflection decreases gradually as the propagation angle increases. However, for vertical angle,
the coefficient decreases sharply to certain angle called Brewster’s angle then it increases
gradually. Similarly, the phase angle, as shown in Fig. 1 (right), reverses for horizontal
polarization after reflection regardless of propagation angle. However, for vertical polarization,
if the propagation angle is above the Brewster’s angle, the phase does not reverse. Hence, the
characteristics of reflected GPS signals are different based on the propagation angle or incidence
angle and the reflecting object.

Fig. 1: (Left) Coefficient of Reflection at L-band for horizontal and vertical polarization. (Right)
Change of Phase angle for horizontal and vertical polarization. X-axis is propagation angle.

3 POSSIBILITY OF REMOTE SENSING

A signal that is used for remote sensing shall include either some properties of the object that is
to be detected or the object shall have impact on the signal characteristics. In the case of GPS
signal, the object creates an impact on the signal when the signal is reflected by the object. GPS
signal is in L-band (1.2 and 1.5Ghz frequency) and there are many other microwave remote
sensing signals in this band. As shown in Fig. 1, reflection coefficient of the signal and phase of
the signal changes based on the reflecting object type and incidence angle. Fig. 1 (left) shows
reflection coefficient for L-band for dry ground, wet ground and water among others. The
difference between the coefficients of reflections between the dry ground and water is about two
to four times. This shows that it may be possible to distinguish between water and dry ground by
analyzing the amplitude of the reflected signal. However, it may be quite difficult to distinguish
between dry ground and concrete or between wet ground and water. The polarization of signal
may also change after reflection. Based, on these theoretical analyses, a reflected GPS signal
may be possible to be used as a remote sensing signal. There are already researches using
reflected GPS signal for soil moisture estimate [10], wind velocity [9], wetland mapping and
ocean observation [3] etc.
RH Master Antenna (RHCP)

4 EXPERIMENT
RF
In order to use GPS signal for remote Front-End GPSsignal
Processing pc
sensing, it is necessary to observe reflected Hard Disk 1
GPS signal from the ground, not the direct
signal from the satellites. A reflected signal LH
may have different polarization than the
Slave Antennas (LHCP)
direct signal as discussed above in GPS Hard Disk 2
signal characteristics and hence an antenna
capable of acquiring LHCP signal might be
necessary. There are no commercially Fig. 3: System architecture for reflected signal
available systems for such observation. analysis using RHCP and LHCP GPS antenna
Neither, a commercially available
conventional GPS receiver can be used.
Hence, we have developed our own
prototype using two antennas and software-
based GPS receiver as shown in Fig. 2. The
details can be found in [6]. The objective of
the experiment is to observe and analyze the
reflected signal with respect to direct signal.
We have conducted experiments [5] in the
past using RHCP and LHCP antennas to
study the nature of signal from LHCP
antenna. The algorithms for signal
processing are discussed in [6]. Reflected
signal analysis capable receiver has been
used by [2] and quite promising results have
been obtained to estimate soil moisture [10],
wind velocity [9], wetland mapping and Fig. 2:Data observation tower. Red dot shows
ocean observation [3]. the location of the antenna

We have logged data from a tall tower at a

height of about 100m as shown in Fig. 3.
These data are used to study the reflection
behavior of GPS signal and develop signal
analysis algorithms. Refer [6] for details.
However, it is necessary to log data from an
air-borne platform to cover a wide area for
remote sensing. We are developing a system
using a remote controlled helicopter
platform as shown in Fig. 4.
Fig. 4: Remote controlled Helicopter for data
observation
5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Some experiments for possibility analysis

of remote sensing using reflected GPS
signal have been conducted. The basic of
the signal analysis is to compare the loss of
signal amplitude, delay and phase of the
reflected signal with respect to the direct
signal. Fig. 5 shows one of the results of
such analysis for data observed from a
tower. The top figure shows the change in
amplitude and delay for reflected signal
(blue color) with respect to direct signal
(red color) which is taken as reference. The
delay value shows the path distance of the
reflected signal from the reflected object to
the antenna. This information can be used
indirectly to compute the height of the
antenna from the ground and hence can Fig. 5: (Top) Amplitude and delay of direct (red)
become an altimeter. The middle and and reflected (blue) signals. (Middle) I and Q
bottom figures of Fig. 5 shows power of I channels of direct signal. (Bottom) I and Q
and Q channels of RHCP and LHCP channels of reflect signals
antenna. In processing GPS signal, the
phase loops are designed so that it contains signal in I-channel and noise in Q-channel. However,
for LHCP antenna data, the signal is distributed on both I and Q channels. This is probably due
to the change of polarization after reflection. In this case, the signal is neither RHCP nor LHCP,
but an elliptical polarization. The change of coefficient and phase are used for analysis of
characteristics of the reflecting object which will become the remote sensing application.

However, the use of GPS signal for remote sensing application is not simple. Though GPS
signal characteristics are similar to other L-band microwave remote sensing signals, the signal is
designed for navigation application but nor for remote sensing purpose. Thus, it has difficulties
to be used as a signal for remote sensing, for example, very low power and spread spectrum
modulation. Due to spread spectrum, a signal can not be detected unless it is demodulated. The
signal before demodulation is below the noise floor. Antenna gain pattern is another factor that
affects observation. A narrow beam antenna will be necessary for fine resolution, however such
an antenna will be quite large in size and hence is not a practical solution for air-borne platform.
On the other hand, a wide beam antenna will cover large foot-print and hence the observation
area resolution will be very large. A phase array antenna will be a solution but the system will
be complex. Though, there is possibility of using GPS signal for remote sensing, it may not be
possible to distinguish between the two similar objects that have similar electrical properties, for
example, discrimination between concrete and dry ground.

6 CONCLUSIONS

We have developed a prototype system to study and analyze the possibility of remote sensing
using GPS signal. Necessary algorithms to process direct and reflect signals either individually
or in “master-slave” mode have been developed to estimate signal amplitude and signal delay.
These values will form a base for further analysis of the signal for remote sensing purpose. The
experiments we have conducted so far and the experiments conducted by other researchers in
this field have shown very strong feasibility of using GPS signal for remote sensing applications.
However, there are also difficulties for GPS signal to be used as a remote sensing signal. If it
becomes possible, we can have multi-channel, real time, global coverage and low-cost (GPS
signals are freely available) remote sensing for numerous applications.

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