A Real-Time GNSS-R System for Monitoring Sea Surface Wind Speed and Significant Wave Height

Abstract

This paper presents a monitoring system based on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) reflected signals to provide real-time observations of sea conditions. Instead of a computer, the system uses a custom-built hardware platform that incorporates Radio Frequency (RF), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), Digital Signal Processing (DSP), and Raspberry Pi for real-time signal processing. The suggested structure completes the navigation signal’s positioning as well as the reflected signal’s feature extraction. Field tests are conducted to confirm the effectiveness of the system and the retrieval algorithm described in this research. The entire system collects and analyzes signals at a coastal site in the field experiment, producing sea surface wind speed and significant wave height (SWH) that are compared to local weather station data, demonstrating the system’s practicality. The system can allow the centralized monitoring of many sites, as well as field experiments and real-time early warning at sea.