Constellation-to-ground coverage analysis is an important problem in practical satellite applications. The classical net point method is one of the most commonly used algorithms in resolving this problem, indicating that the computation efficiency significantly depends on the high-precision requirement. On this basis, an improved cell area-based method is proposed in this paper, in which a cell is used as the basic analytical unit. By calculating the accuracy area of a cell that is partly contained by the ground region or partly covered by the constellation, the accurate coverage area can be obtained accordingly. Experiments simulating different types of coverage problems are conducted, and the results reveal the correctness and high efficiency of the proposed analytical method.
This paper studies the influence of orbital element error on coverage calculation of a satellite. In order to present the influence, an analysis method based on the position uncertainty of the satellite shown by an error ellipsoid is proposed. In this error ellipsoid, positions surrounding the center of the error ellipsoid mean different positioning possibilities which present three-dimensional normal distribution. The possible subastral points of the satellite are obtained by sampling enough points on the surface of the error ellipsoid and projecting them on Earth. Then, analysis cases are implemented based on these projected subastral points. Finally, a comparison report of coverage calculation between considering and not considering the error of orbital elements is given in the case results.
The satellite constellation-to-ground coverage problem is a basic and important problem in satellite applications. A group of judgement theorems is given, and a novel approach based on these judgement theorems for judging whether a constellation can offer complete single or multiple coverage of a ground region is proposed. From the point view of mathematics, the constellation-to-ground coverage problem can be regarded as a problem entailing the intersection of spherical regions. Four judgement theorems that can translate the coverage problem into a judgement about the state of a group of ground points are proposed, thus allowing the problem to be efficiently solved. Single- and multiple-coverage problems are simulated, and the results show that this approach is correct and effective.
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