Taiwan's GNSS Reflectometry Mission - The FORMOSAT-7 Reflectometry (FS-7R) Mission

Due to the success of FORMOSAT-3 and upcoming FORMOSAT-7 (FS-7) global navigation satellite system (GNSS) radio occultation missions, the remote sensing application of GNSS becomes an important research topic. In addition to radio occultation, the other major GNSS remote sensing application is reflectometry (GNSS-R), which is to receive the reflection of GNSS signals to probe sea surface height, wind speed, soil moisture, roughness, snow depth, and so on. Space capable GNSS-R technique for the measurement of ocean surface wind speed has been demonstrated in UK DMC, SSTL TechDemoSat-1, and NASA CYGNSS satellites. In this paper, the design and development of NSPO in-house built GNSS-R receiver for FS-7R microsatellite mission are presented. The conducted environmental tests are described as well. Some unique features of NSPO GNSS-R receiver are then highlighted. In addition, two airborne flight experiments have been conducted in 2016 to verify the design and performance of NSPO in-house built GNSS-R receiver. This is followed by the conclusions and updated status of FS-7R mission and its GNSS-R payload.