Multi-constellation GNSS interferometric reflectometry for the correction of long-term snow height retrieval on sloping topography

Snow is a key parameter for global climate and hydrological systems. Global Navigation Satellite System interferometric reflectometry (GNSS-IR) has been applied to accurately monitor snow height (SH) with low cost and high temporal-spatial resolution. We proposed an improved GNSS-IR method using detrended signal-to-noise ratio (delta SNR) arcs corresponding to multipath reflection tracks with different azimuths. After using wavelet decomposition and random sample consensus, noise with various frequencies for SNR arcs and outliers of reflector height (RH) estimations have been sequentially mitigated to enhance the availability of the proposed method. Thus, a height datum based on the ground RHs retrieved from multi-GNSS SNR data is established to compensate for the influence of topography variation with different azimuths in SH retrieval. The approximately 3-month delta SNR datasets collected from three stations deployed on sloping topography were used to retrieve SH and compared with the existing method and in situ measurements. The results show that the root mean square errors of the retrievals derived from the proposed method for the three sites are between 4 and 8 cm, and the corresponding correlation surpasses 0.95 when compared to the reference SH datasets. Additionally, we compare the performance of a retrieval with the existing GNSS-IR Web App, and it shows an improvement in RMSE of about 7 cm. Furthermore, because topography variation has been considered, the average correction of SH retrievals is between 2 and 4 cm. The solution with the proposed method helps develop the applications of the GNSS-IR technique on complex topography.