Altimetry method and system

1. An altimetry method for determining an elevation profile of a portion of the Earth surface (ES), comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a signal receiver (RX) on a first platform (S 1 ) flying above said portion of the Earth surface, for receiving a temporal series of signals emitted by a second flying platform (S 2 ) and scattered by said portion of the Earth surface; and

(b) computing altimetry waveforms, indicative of the elevation profile of said portion of the Earth surface, by processing the received signals;

characterized in that said step of computing altimetry waveforms comprises:

(b.1.1) determining correlation waveforms (XC) by cross-correlating the received signals with a plurality of locally-generated frequency-shifted replicas of the emitted signals, the frequency shift of each replica corresponding to the average Doppler shift of the signals reflected at a given time by a particular region of the Earth surface;

(b.1.2) introducing a Doppler frequency-dependent temporal shift to the correlation waveforms in order to compensate for range delay curvature; and

(b2) incoherently summing the temporally shifted correlation waveforms (CXC) corresponding to signals scattered by a same region of the Earth surface at different times during motion of said first platform.

2. An altimetry method according to claim 1 , wherein said first and second platforms are satellites.

3. An altimetry method according to claim 1 , wherein said signals emitted by the second platform are coherent signals.

4. An altimetry method according to claim 1 , wherein said signals emitted by the second platform are spread-spectrum signals.

5. An altimetry method according to claim 4 , wherein said signal emitted by the second platform are GNSS signals.

6. An altimetry method according to claim 5 , wherein the correlation time between the received signals and the locally-generated replicas of the emitted GNSS signals is significantly longer than one chip of the latter.

7. An altimetry method according to claim 1 , wherein the frequency shift between the locally-generated frequency-shifted replicas of the emitted signals is inversely proportional to the duration of said replicas.

8. An altimetry method according to claim 1 , wherein said receiver on said first platform also receives signals emitted by said second flying platform through a direct path (DP), in order to generate the frequency-shifted replica to be correlated with the scattered signal.

9. An altimetry method according to claim 1 , further comprising a step of incoherently summing a plurality of temporally shifted correlation waveforms corresponding to a same Doppler frequency shift and acquired within an incoherent integration time, during which the point (SP) on the Earth surface specularly reflecting the signals emitted by said second flying platform moves of a distance at most equal to the width of the corresponding Doppler zone.

10. An altimetry method according to claim 1 , further comprising an additional step of spatially averaging the altimetry waveforms, in order to improve the precision of the determined elevation profile, while decreasing its spatial resolution.

11. An altimetry method according to claim 1 , wherein said step of computing altimetry waveforms comprises:

converting the received signals into the frequency domain;

in the frequency domains, multiplying said signals by said frequency-shifted replicas thereof and introducing a Doppler frequency-dependent phase shift, corresponding to said Doppler frequency-dependent time shift in the time domain; and

back-transforming the processed signals into the time domain.

12. An altimetry method according to claim 1 , wherein the possible values of the Doppler shift introduced by the motion of the satellite and the corresponding time shifts are computed by taking into account the time-variant relative positions of the first and second platforms and of the Earth.

13. An altimetry method according to claim 1 , wherein signals emitted from a plurality of second platforms are received by said receiver and processed simultaneously in order to compute said altimetry waveforms.

14. An altimetry method according to claim 1 , further comprising an additional step of determining a height profile of the region of Earth surface above the first satellite on the basis of said altimetry waveforms.

15. An altimetry system comprising:

a satellite carrying a receiver for receiving a temporal series of signals emitted by a second satellite and scattered by a portion of the Earth below said satellite; and

signal processing means for computing altimetry waveforms, indicative of the elevation profile of said portion of the Earth surface, by processing the received signals;

wherein said signal processing means comprise:

a processor for generating frequency-shifted replicas of the signals emitted by said second satellite, the frequency shift of each replica corresponding to the average Doppler shift of the signals reflected at a given time by a particular region of the Earth surface;

a cross-correlator for computing correlation waveforms by cross-correlating the received signals with a said generated frequency-shifted replicas of the emitted signals;

means for introducing a Doppler frequency-dependent temporal shift to the correlation waveforms in order to compensate for range delay curvature; and

means for incoherently summing the temporally shifted correlation waveforms corresponding to signals scattered by a same region of the Earth surface at different times during motion of said first platform.