Abstract
Choosing the optimal orbit is a critical step for designing satellite programs to meet given mission goals. Fundamentals of orbital mechanics, with emphasis on those relevant to meteorological satellites, are reviewed for illustrating the physical background behind different types of satellite orbits mentioned. While the geostationary orbit (GEO) stands on a very simple physical principle, the physics underlying low-earth orbits (LEOs), for which a higher-order spherically-asymmetric component of the earth’s gravity field (the \(J_2\) perturbation) is crucial, is far more complicated than GEO. This chapter provides a compact but complete derivation of the \(J_2\) perturbation formula along with its implications for LEO configurations. The second half of the chapter is devoted to an overview of the instrument design such as the field of view and scanning geometry.
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Notes
- 1.
The earth completes a 360\(^\circ \) rotation for a period 4 min short of 24 h. The planet must slightly over-rotate to finish the 24-h (culmination-to-culmination) cycle, since the earth orbits the sun as it spins.
- 2.
The assumption of constant r is of practical use because most meteorological satellites have a circular orbit.
- 3.
The inverse is not true: not all high-inclination orbits are sun-synchronous.
- 4.
This should not be confused with another (perhaps more common) definition of FOV, in which FOV refers to the maximum size of an image observable at a time with a camera.
- 5.
The effective diameter is smaller than the physical size of an antenna for various reasons including non-uniform aperture illumination and imperfect reflectivity.
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Masunaga, H. (2022). Satellite Orbit and Scan. In: Satellite Measurements of Clouds and Precipitation. Springer Remote Sensing/Photogrammetry. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-2243-5_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-2243-5_3
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