ON A SATELLITE COVERAGE PROBLEM

Abstract

The earth coverage area for a satellite in an Earth synchronous orbit with a non-zero inclination angle is a function of the time of day. Locating the area where an Earth terminal can establish a link with a geosynchronous satellite at a certain period of the day is of great concern to system designers: A special case of much interest is when the time period of satellite coverage is 24 h. Two simple and rapid algorithms for locating 24 h satellite coverage areas are presented. One of the proposed algorithms can also be applied to determine other airborne antenna coverage problems.