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Monitoring a storm surge during Hurricane Harvey using multi-constellation GNSS-Reflectometry

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Abstract

Storm surges, one of the major causes of hurricane damage, lead to an abnormal rapid rise in water levels of up to a few feet for several minutes due to low pressure, strong winds, and high waves caused by a hurricane. This study utilizes GNSS-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) to monitor the unexpected water level change due to a storm surge using multi-frequency, multi-constellation GNSS. With an enhanced spectral analysis based on multiple frequency GNSS signals and statistical data processing, the proposed approach detected the signature of storm surge on the water level and improved the overall capability of GNSS-R-based water level measurements in terms of accuracy and temporal resolution. Suggested algorithms were validated by a case study for detecting a storm surge during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The one month of data processing result showed a strong correlation with the co-located tide gauge even during the extreme storm surge when the correlation coefficient was 0.97. In addition, we quantified the impact of involving multiple constellations GNSS regarding their improvement of accuracy and the temporal resolution of water level measurements. The results reveal that all GNSS constellations generated consistent measurements, the water level accuracy was improved by multi-frequency signals, and the temporal resolution was significantly improved by having an increased number of GNSS observations.

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  1. School of Civil and Construction Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Su-Kyung Kim & Jihye Park

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  1. Su-Kyung Kim
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  2. Jihye Park
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Correspondence to Jihye Park.

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Kim, SK., Park, J. Monitoring a storm surge during Hurricane Harvey using multi-constellation GNSS-Reflectometry. GPS Solut 25, 63 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-021-01105-2

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