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Title: Phase-space estimate of satellite coverage time

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:10139231

This note derives a phase-space estimate of the overlap in satellite coverage and evaluates its impact on the time for a constellation to cover some specified area. The satellites` motion is treated as random in the calculation of the overlaps. Enough passes are prescribed to assure that an adequate probability of observing each area is accumulated. For 0.9--0.99 probabilities of coverage, overlaps increase the time for coverage by factors of 2--4 over no-overlap estimates. This model also gives the probability of different vintages of data. If a given constellation covers the whole Earth in the no-overlap time T{sub 0}, the average vintage of the data over the earth will then be the average , which is essentially the same as T{sub 0}. Overlap over the poles might be wasteful, but overlap in areas of interest by inclined orbits just causes measurements to be more current in areas of interest.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-36
OSTI ID:
10139231
Report Number(s):
LA-12298-MS; ON: DE92013555
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: May 1992
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English