ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

GNSS reflectometry

Imagine you are a pirate with an eye patch and a telescope. You are sailing your boat on the ocean looking for treasure. You use your telescope to see what is around you and figure out where the treasure might be hidden.

But sometimes the ocean is rough and it's hard to see things clearly. That's where reflectometry comes in. It's like throwing a ball at a wall and seeing how it bounces back. Instead of a ball, we use signals sent from satellites high up in space.

These signals bounce off objects on the ground, like the surface of the ocean, and come back to our satellite receiver. We measure how long the signal took to return and how strong it was when it came back. From this, we can gather information about the object the signal bounced off of.

In the case of the ocean, we can use this information to measure waves and currents. This is useful for scientists who study the ocean and weather patterns, or for sailors like you, who want to navigate safely and avoid rough waters.

So gnss reflectometry is a fancy way of using signals from space to bounce off objects on the ground and gather important information, just like a pirate using a telescope to find treasure.