Satellite coverage assessment considering cloud cover

Tools

McGrath, Ciara N. and Werkmeister, Astrid and Gribben, Joshua and Lowe, Christopher J. and Macdonald, Malcolm (2023) Satellite coverage assessment considering cloud cover. In: 2023 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, 2023-08-13 - 2023-08-17, Big Sky Resort.

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Abstract

Due to cloud cover, the performance provided by optical or lidar satellite systems may differ from the predicted performance. This work presents a means of rapidly assessing the coverage that can be expected from a satellite constellation considering cloud probability. A latitude-specific pseudo-circumference is defined and calculated using a cloud factor to provide insights into the relative coverage available to different regions. Comparison of the results from the presented method with simulated and historical data collected by the Sentinel-2 constellation shows the potential of the proposed method to calculate expected time between cloud free images when averaged over the long-term. Appropriate choice of cloud model is found to be an important consideration to ensure the validity of the method.

ORCID iDs

McGrath, Ciara N., Werkmeister, Astrid ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0174-5851, Gribben, Joshua, Lowe, Christopher J. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2964-7337 and Macdonald, Malcolm ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4499-4281;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)