A Wavelet-Based Elevation Angle Selection Method for Soil Moisture Retrieval Using GNSS-IR

Global Navigation Satellite System Interferometric Reflectometry (GNSS-IR) technology has emerged as a research hotspot in the remote sensing field in recent years due to its advantages of low cost and high precision for soil moisture monitoring. Addressing the issue that fixed elevation angle intervals struggle to adapt to the varying signal characteristics of different satellites, this paper proposes an adaptive elevation angle interval selection method based on wavelet transform. This method utilizes wavelet transform to analyze the time-frequency characteristics of the residual Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) signal, calculates the ratio sequence of the main frequency component strength to the noise component strength, and sets a threshold to automatically determine the retrieval elevation angle interval for each satellite, thereby improving the accuracy of feature parameter extraction. The results show the following: ① Compared to traditional fixed elevation angle intervals (5-20° and 5-30°), the proposed method significantly enhances soil moisture retrieval accuracy. ② For the averaged phase feature parameters calculated within the algorithm-selected intervals for all satellites, the R² and RMSE are 0.925 and 0.55%, respectively, representing improvements of 3.1% and 14.2% compared to the original results. ③ For signals from low-quality reflection zones, R² increased from 0.728 to 0.839 (a 13.2% improvement), while RMSE decreased from 1.045 to 0.806 (a 22.9% reduction). This method effectively adapts to the quality attenuation characteristics of satellite signals across different reflection zones, providing an optimized elevation angle interval selection strategy for GNSS-IR soil moisture retrieval.