The Long-Term Forecast of Station View Periods for Elliptical Orbits

TL;DR

This paper extends a method for estimating ground station view periods from circular to elliptical satellite orbits using ergodic theory, simplifying and accelerating satellite communication mission planning.

Contribution

It introduces a novel extension of view period estimation to elliptical orbits employing ergodic theory, avoiding trajectory propagation.

Findings

Extended view period integral to elliptical orbits

Significantly simplified satellite communication analysis

Accelerated mission design process

Abstract

In a previous paper, using ergodic theory, Lo [1] derived a simple definite integral that provided an estimate of the view periods of ground stations to satellites. This assumes the satellites are in circular orbits with non-repeating ground tracks under linear $J_2$ perturbations. The novel feature is that this is done without the propagation of the trajectory by employing ergodic theory. This accelerated the telecommunications mission design and analysis by several orders of magnitude and greatly simplified the process. In this paper, we extend the view period integral to elliptical orbits.