Coverage Area Determination for Conical Fields of View Considering an Oblate Earth

This paper introduces a new analytical method for the determination of the coverage area modeling the Earth as an oblate ellipsoid of rotation. Starting from the knowledge of the satellite’s position vector and the direction of the navigation antenna line of sight, the surface generated by the inter...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of guidance, control, and dynamics control, and dynamics, 2019-10, Vol.42 (10), p.2233-2245
Main Authors: Nugnes, Marco, Colombo, Camilla, Tipaldi, Massimo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antennas
Apertures
Computer simulation
Dependence
Earth rotation
Earth surface
Elevation angle
Field of view
Ground stations
Line of sight
Mathematical models
Navigation
Orbits
Parameters
Satellites
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Summary:This paper introduces a new analytical method for the determination of the coverage area modeling the Earth as an oblate ellipsoid of rotation. Starting from the knowledge of the satellite’s position vector and the direction of the navigation antenna line of sight, the surface generated by the intersection of the oblate ellipsoid and the assumed conical field of view is decomposed in many ellipses, obtained by cutting the Earth’s surface with every plane containing the navigation antenna line of sight. The geometrical parameters of each ellipse can be derived analytically together with the points of intersection of the conical field of view with the ellipse itself by assuming a proper value of the half-aperture angle or the minimum elevation angle from which the satellite can be considered visible from the Earth’s surface. The method can be applied for different types of pointing (geocentric, geodetic, and generic) according to the mission requirements. Finally, numerical simulations compare the classical spherical approach with the new ellipsoidal method in the determination of the coverage area, and also show the dependence of the coverage errors on some relevant orbital parameters.
ISSN:1533-3884
0731-5090
1533-3884
DOI:10.2514/1.G004156