Simple Over-Water Altimeter Using GPS Reflections

Stephen .J. Katzberg, James L. Garrison, Charles T. Howell

Abstract:	Recent investigations of GPS signals reflecting from water surfaces have led to a number of new applications. The reflected signal is strong and travels over a path whose length can be determined by simply modified GPS receivers. This paper presents one of the applications of the reflected GPS signal for aircraft applications. It is shown in this paper that the excess path length travelled by the GPS signal in reflecting from a water surface and received at an aircraft can yield the altitude of the aircraft. The theory behind this technique is discussed, accuracy predictions are given and experimental results are presented. This technique is demonstrated to have the potential to give altitude information to better than a few meters. One particular hardware implementation is presented to demonstrate the ease with which a GPS receiver can be modified to provide altimetry information.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 12th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1999) September 14 - 17, 1999 Nashville, TN
Pages:	1819 - 1828
Cite this article:	Katzberg, Stephen .J., Garrison, James L., Howell, Charles T., "Simple Over-Water Altimeter Using GPS Reflections," Proceedings of the 12th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1999), Nashville, TN, September 1999, pp. 1819-1828.
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