Systems and methods for a cumulant-based discriminator for global
navigation satellite system code alignment are provided. In one
embodiment, a method for determining a misalignment between a GNSS coarse
acquisition code signal and a replica code is provided. The method
comprises producing code samples of a spread spectrum signal received
from a satellite; multiplying the code samples by a current value of a
replica code; and calculating a set of multiple-order cumulants based on
the code samples multiplied by the current value of the replica code.