CIRCULAR LATTICE STRING-OF-PEARLS CONSTELLATIONS FOR RADIO OCCULTATION MISSION

This paper addresses the problem of designing suitable satellite constellation for Radio Occultation mission. Radio occultation for the Earth atmosphere usually requires global coverage and short interval measurements. The Circular (2-D) Lattice Flower Constellations theory is here applied to design constellations maximizing active time with providing global coverage and frequent measurements. Optimizations are performed using Genetic Algorithms to estimate constellation design parameters. Optimization is constrained by altitude range (drag and Van Allen belt avoidance) and nodal precession is used to obtain global coverage. The resulting constellation geometries have been explored from a coverage performance perspective. Two coverage estimation methods have been used to evaluate coverage performance. The performance of some solutions are provided to help optimality selection.

CIRCULAR LATTICE STRING-OF-PEARLS CONSTELLATIONS FOR RADIO OCCULTATION MISSION Conference Paper