Satellite coverage assessment considering cloud cover

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)