A Simplified Analytical Approach for Determining Eclipses of Satellites Occulted by a Celestial Body

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 under the aforementioned assumptions can be simplified in the cylindrical shadow model. Several simplifications to the proposed model are presented in the study. The paper also considers extending the model to account for non-spherical shapes of celestial bodies, i.e., bodies with oblateness, and presents an algorithm that accounts for changes in eclipse duration due to the heliocentric motion of these celestial bodies. The model has been validated through numerous tests with a numerical algorithm and satellite real data, as well as with other analytical models.