Reading the signals

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (

) will lead a British project to exploit signals from GPS and GNSS navigation satellites that are reflected from the Earth for remote-sensing purposes.

The project will investigate a prototype instrument capable of measuring the roughness of the sea and soil moisture content, which will provide data for atmospheric science and for operational ocean and weather forecasting.

SSTL will lead a team of experts from the National Oceanographic Centre in Southampton and the universities of Bath and Surrey to further technological capability in line with UK Earth observation science priorities.

Funding for the project has been made available by the Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI), the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills (DIUS).

According to SSTL, signals from GPS and GNSS navigation satellites reflected from land, ice and ocean will be analysed by the instrument, which will fly on board a separate small satellite.