Sensitivity of NavIC signal for soil moisture variation

Abstract

Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) is Indian's Global Navigation System which operates at L-band and S-band. In this paper, we have studied the signal received by NavIC receiver by direct path as well as the reflected signal from the soil surface. We have analyzed this multipath signal for the variation of soil moisture. It is observed that the reflected signal from soil surface is indicative of soil moisture. The multipath signal at a lower incident angle (13°–30°) was observed to segregate the reflected signal from direct signal. The least square sinusoidal fit was applied to determine the amplitude of the segregated signal. A good correlation was observed between the observed soil moisture and amplitude of the reflected signal.