Detection of reflections in GNSS radio occultation measurements using phase matching

Abstract. It is well-known that in the presence of super-refractive (SR) layers in the lower troposphere inversion of GNSS radio occultation (RO) measurements using the Abel transform yields biased refractivity profiles. As such it is problematic to reconstruct the true refractivity from the RO signal. Additional information about this lower region of the atmosphere might be embedded in reflected parts of the signal. To retrieve the bending angle, the phase matching operator can be used. This operator produces a complex function of the impact parameter, and from its phase we can calculate the bending angle. Instead of looking at the phase, in this paper we focus on the function's amplitude. The results in this paper show that the signatures of surface reflections in GNSS RO measurements can be significantly enhanced when using the phase matching method by processing only an appropriately selected segment of the received signal. We can then identify reflection signatures even in cases where they are normally obscured by the direct signal's influence on the phase matching amplitude. This signature enhancement is demonstrated by simulations and confirmed with real MetOp-A data.