The ESA HydroGNSS small satellite mission - using novel GNSS Reflectometry techniques to take measurements of the Earth’s water cycle
Webinar Speaker:
Martin Unwin
SSTL
- February 1st, 2024
- 11:00 A.M. Eastern Time
- Sponsored by GRSS
- IFT - TC Webinar
About the Webinar
SSTL, part of the Airbus group, is a UK spin-off company from the University of Surrey, that designs, manufactures and operates small satellites. Amongst its activities, it builds optical, thermal and radar imaging satellites, and is currently manufacturing the Lunar Pathfinder mission offering communications links for lunar assets. Another SSTL project is the ESA HydroGNSS Scout mission which comprises of two small satellites that will measure climate variables using satellite navigation signal reflections. GNSS microwave signals are continually being broadcast towards the Earth from over 100 satellites in high orbits, and are used for all kinds of navigation, including military, marine, aircraft, automotive and mobile phone use. Although these signals are very weak, they reflect off the Earth’s surface and can be detected by spacecraft in low Earth orbit and used as radar sources for sensing geophysical properties of the Earth. HydroGNSS plans to use these reflections to measure soil moisture, inundation, freeze/thaw, and biomass, with secondary measurements of ocean wind speed and sea ice extent, all parameters important to sensing of our climate.
About the Speaker
Martin Unwin received his PhD from the University of Surrey in 1995 during which he participated with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) in the early use of a GPS receiver on a small satellite, PoSat-1. As an employee of SSTL he continued with the design of GPS and GNSS receivers for spacecraft, developing products used on many satellites, and exploring different applications including attitude determination, high altitude GNSS, and remote sensing. Dr Unwin is now the Industrial Principal Investigator for the ESA HydroGNSS Scout mission. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation, holds the 2011 ION Tycho Brahe award, and the 2017 RAeS Silver Medal.
