Ship Detection using GNSS-R delay-Doppler Maps via simulation tools

Recent research activities have investigated the feasibility of detecting ship targets from Global Navigation Satellite System-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) receivers. It was concluded by both experimental and theoretical analyses that ship detection is infeasible from spaceborne receivers working in a conventional configuration. On the other hand, it was demonstrated that performance might be boosted by receiving the right-hand circular polarization (RHCP) channel in a backscattering configuration. In this paper, we assess the detectability of ship targets in GNSS-R delay-Doppler maps by means of a reliable stochastic GNSS-R simulation tool capable of accounting for the presence of the target. The results mainly confirm the previous theoretical analyses and demonstrate the feasibility of the ship detection problem using low-altitudes RHCP-backscattering GNSS-R