The Local Coverage Diagram, A Tool for Satellite Orbit Anaylsis

Abstract

With the local coverage diagram a tool for a longterm survey on frequency and quality of contacts of a near Earth satellite with a point of interest on the Earth's surface is realized. It respects different coverage or visibility conditions of a satellite with its ground station. Special interest is based on characterising coverage patterns for different satellite families like near Earth missions, repetitive and/or sunsynchronous orbits, orbits with required local time shift per draconic period, satellite orbits with manoeuvre or uncontrolled satellite orbits as well as for satellite constellations. The tool allows an easy detection of observation of different satellite orbits with observation conflicts. The local coverage pattern is of interest for orbit analysis investigations, for operational use in satellite ground centres as well as for educational purposes.