A Simplified Analytical Approach for Determining Eclipses of Satellites Occulted by a Celestial Body
Vladislav Zubko, Andrey Belyaev

TL;DR
This paper introduces a simplified analytical model using elliptical traces to accurately determine satellite eclipse durations caused by celestial bodies, applicable across various orbital inclinations.
Contribution
The paper presents a novel elliptical-based analytical approach for satellite eclipse prediction, extending existing models to include non-spherical celestial bodies and orbital motion effects.
Findings
Model accurately predicts eclipse durations across diverse inclinations.
Validation shows high agreement with numerical algorithms and real satellite data.
Simplifications enable efficient eclipse event determination for mission planning.
Abstract
The primary objective of this paper is to construct an analytical model for determining the total duration of eclipse events of satellites. The approach assumes that the trace formed in the orbital plane, cutting body shadow under the classical conical shadow model, can be described as an ellipse. This allows for the derivation of its parameters through the use of classical orbital elements and solar position in the body-centric frame. Consequently, the problem of identifying satellite occultation events is simplified to searching for points of intersection between two ellipses: the satellite orbit and the shadow. The developed model has been demonstrated to be applicable for a wide range of inclinations, with the exception of cases where the orbital plane of the satellite motion coincides with that of the sun in the body-centric frame. It is shown that the shadow function constructed…
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Taxonomy
TopicsGeophysics and Gravity Measurements · Statistical and numerical algorithms
