Snowpack is an important fresh water storage; the retrieval of snow water equivalents\nfrom satellite data permits to estimate potentially available water amounts which is an essential\nparameter in water management plans running in several application fields (e.g., basic needs,\nhydroelectric, agriculture, hazard and risk monitoring, climate change studies). The possibility to\nassess snowpack height from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) observations by means of\nthe GNSS reflectometry technique (GNSS-R) has been shown by several studies. However, in general,\nstudies are being conducted using observations collected by continuously operating reference stations\n(CORS) built for geodetic purposes and equipped with geodetic-grade instruments. Moreover, CORS\nare located on sites selected according to criteria different from those more suitable for snowpack\nstudies. In this work, beside an overview of key elements of GNSS reflectometry, single-frequency\nGNSS observations collected by u-blox M8T GNSS receivers and patch antennas from u-blox and\nTallysman have been considered for the determination of antenna height from the snowpack surface\non a selected test site. Results demonstrate the feasibility of GNSS-R even with non-geodetic-grade\ninstruments, opening the way towards diffuse GNSS-R targeted applications.
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