Characterization of GNSS Radio Frequency Interference in Space: Lessons Learned from the TRITON Mission

Jyh-Ching Juang, Yung-Fu Tsai

Abstract:	The issue of GNSS (global navigation satellite system) interference is an important concern for navigation and network synchronization. In particular, the spoofing which may potentially mislead GNSS receiver to render erroneous position, velocity, and timing (PVT) information by maliciously manipulating signal and data contents has become a reality as observed in some air and marine transportation sectors. In addition to strengthen the robustness of GNSS receiver to be resilience against interference and spoofing, it is equally important to characterize the presence and extent of interference/spoofing as the incidents are likely to be time and location dependent. A spacecraft with an appropriate sensor can provide observations at a global scale which in turn can be used to devise countermeasure. The TRITON satellite is a microsatellite that is designed to perform GNSS reflectometry (GNSS-R) mission in which the scattered signals are observed and processed to enhance our understanding about variables such as ocean wind speed, soil moisture, roughness, and sea ice thickness of the Earth. A GNSS-R receiver takes the direct line-of-sight and reflected GNSS signals to form the delay Doppler map and facilitate the deduction of the aforementioned physical variables. However, the presence of terrestrial radio frequency interference may degrade and disrupt the observations. This, in turn, leads to a way to observe and characterize the situation of interference and spoofing at a global scale. The TRITON satellite has been in space for more than two years and the paper attempts to analyze the observation data and come up with statistical characterization of the incidents including jamming and spoofing. To further investigate the phenomena, a new satellite project is planned to provide in-depth understanding and characterization by using a dual-polarized antenna onboard the satellite. To further streamline the processing chain, an edge computer is developed together with the dual-polarized GNSS-R receiver to detect and identify noticeable interference in space in a hope that the GNSS radio frequency interference situation on the Earth can be characterized in space.
Published in:	Proceedings of the ION 2026 Pacific PNT Meeting April 13 - 16, 2026 Hilton Waikiki Beach Honolulu, Hawaii
Pages:	807 - 814
Cite this article:	Juang, Jyh-Ching, Tsai, Yung-Fu, "Characterization of GNSS Radio Frequency Interference in Space: Lessons Learned from the TRITON Mission," Proceedings of the ION 2026 Pacific PNT Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, April 2026, pp. 807-814. https://doi.org/10.33012/2026.20613
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