Feasibility of Ocean Farming through Fusion of GNSS-R and Other Earth Observation Data

Eva Fernández-Rodríguez, Zahra Okba, Lisah Ligono, and Cristhian Timoté

Abstract:	The oceans have always been an essential source of resources for humankind, however there are numerous activities and harmful phenomena such as ocean acidification and overfishing that are severely threatening the health of the world’s oceans. Ocean farming could both diminish the pressure on providing food from natural, already endangered ecosystems by offering an alternative to catching seafood; and also help to recover some areas of the ocean by growing specific species that can improve the quality of the water. This promising industry must be encouraged by facilitating its development and protecting it from hazards. This study focuses on the design of a model for estimating the viability of ocean farms in specific regions, considering the parametrization of relevant aspects of the model for the ecosystem, with special attention paid to sea level and tidal movement evaluation. A large amount of data is required to enable the monitoring of these parameters. This research addresses this challenge by proposing a methodology to densify the available data, by combining GNSS-R altimetry estimations and Earth Observation data gathered by specialized satellites. Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R) has demonstrated its effectiveness at measuring ocean roughness by characterization of the reflected sea surface [1–5]. This paper shows the results of combining GNSS-R estimations using the RINEX files from the EUREF GNSS base station located in Vigo (Spain) with altimetry data provided by Sentinel-3, Jason-3, and Sentinel-6 satellites. The understanding of the water dynamics and general status of the ocean area can improve performance and minimize the risks for entrepreneurs when developing farms on a sustainable basis, by applying a priori knowledge about the suitability of different seafood species.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 34th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2021) September 20 - 24, 2021 Union Station Hotel St. Louis, Missouri
Pages:	535 - 548
Cite this article:	Fernández-Rodríguez, Eva, Okba, Zahra, Ligono, Lisah, Timoté, Cristhian, "Feasibility of Ocean Farming through Fusion of GNSS-R and Other Earth Observation Data," Proceedings of the 34th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2021), St. Louis, Missouri, September 2021, pp. 535-548. https://doi.org/10.33012/2021.18143
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