Analytical technique for satellite projected cross-sectional area calculation

Ben-Yaacov, Ohad; Edlerman, Eviatar; Gurfil, Pini

doi:10.1016/j.asr.2015.04.004

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…For high-precision studies, the satellite's attitude determination is employed for its calculation (e.g. Ben-Yaacov et al, 2015). The selected real-world intervals were chosen based of a review of the environmental parameters that describe solar-geomagnetic activity, including the solar wind speed (V sw ) and proton density (PD), the disturbance storm time (Dst) index (Mayaud, 1980), the IMF B y and B z components and the auroral electrojet (AE) index (Davis and Sugiura, 1966).…”

Section: Data Methods and Scope Of The Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Atmospheric drag effects on modelled low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites during the July 2000 Bastille Day event in contrast to an interval of geomagnetically quiet conditions

Nwankwo¹,

Denig

Chakrabarti

et al. 2021

Ann. Geophys.

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Abstract. In this work, we simulated the atmospheric drag effect on two model SmallSats (small satellites) in low Earth orbit (LEO) with different ballistic coefficients during 1-month intervals of solar–geomagnetic quiet and perturbed conditions. The goal of this effort was to quantify how solar–geomagnetic activity influences atmospheric drag and perturbs satellite orbits, with particular emphasis on the Bastille Day event. Atmospheric drag compromises satellite operations due to increased ephemeris errors, attitude positional uncertainties and premature satellite re-entry. During a 1-month interval of generally quiescent solar–geomagnetic activity (July 2006), the decay in altitude (h) was a modest 0.53 km (0.66 km) for the satellite with the smaller (larger) ballistic coefficient of 2.2×10-3 m2 kg−1 (3.03×10-3 m2 kg−1). The associated orbital decay rates (ODRs) during this quiet interval ranged from 13 to 23 m per day (from 16 to 29 m per day). For the disturbed interval of July 2000 the significantly increased altitude loss and range of ODRs were 2.77 km (3.09 km) and 65 to 120 m per day (78 to 142 m per day), respectively. Within the two periods, more detailed analyses over 12 d intervals of extremely quiet and disturbed conditions revealed respective orbital decays of 0.16 km (0.20 km) and 1.14 km (1.27 km) for the satellite with the smaller (larger) ballistic coefficient. In essence, the model results show that there was a 6- to 7-fold increase in the deleterious impacts of satellite drag between the quiet and disturbed periods. We also estimated the enhanced atmospheric drag effect on the satellites' parameters caused by the July 2000 Bastille Day event (in contrast to the interval of geomagnetically quiet conditions). The additional percentage increase, due to the Bastille Day event, to the monthly mean values of h and ODR are 34.69 % and 50.13 % for Sat-A and 36.45 % and 68.95 % for Sat-B. These simulations confirmed (i) the dependence of atmospheric drag force on a satellite's ballistic coefficient, and (ii) that increased solar–geomagnetic activity substantially raises the degrading effect of satellite drag. In addition, the results indicate that the impact of short-duration geomagnetic transients (such as the Bastille Day storm) can have a further deleterious effect on normal satellite operations. Thus, this work increases the visibility and contributes to the scientific knowledge surrounding the Bastille Day event and also motivates the introduction of new indices used to describe and estimate the atmospheric drag effect when comparing regimes of varying solar–geomagnetic activity. We suggest that a model of satellite drag, when combined with a high-fidelity atmospheric specification as was done here, can lead to improved satellite ephemeris estimates.

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Section: Data Methods and Scope Of The Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Atmospheric drag effects on modelled low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites during the July 2000 Bastille Day event in contrast to an interval of geomagnetically quiet conditions

Nwankwo¹,

Denig

Chakrabarti

et al. 2021

Ann. Geophys.

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“…Furthermore, the somewhat arbitrary choice of A ref can further impact accuracy. Histori-cally, this has been defined as the cross-sectional area of the object perpendicular to the flow direction [23]. For complex spacecraft shapes in a variable flow, this may not be accurately determinable at all times.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

ADBSat: Methodology of a novel panel method tool for aerodynamic analysis of satellites

Sinpetru,

Crisp,

Mostaza-Prieto

et al. 2021

Preprint

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ADBSat is a novel software that determines the aerodynamic properties of any body in free-molecular flow. Its main advantage is the fast approximation of the aerodynamics of spacecraft in the lower end of the low-Earth orbit altitude range. It is a novel implementation of a panel method, where the body is represented as a set of fundamental elements and the sum of their individual aerodynamic properties makes up the properties of the whole. ADBSat's approach treats the shape as a set of flat triangular plates. These are read from a CAD geometry file in the Wavefront format, which can be created with most common CAD programs. A choice of gas-surface interaction models is available to represent the physics of free-molecular flow under different conditions. Its modular design means that other models can be easily and quickly implemented. It also benefits from a new shading algorithm for fast determination of elemental flow exposure. The flat plate representation and shading algorithm are further employed to determine solar coefficients, again with the ability to easily add further solar radiation pressure models as they become available. An example case is presented to show the capability and functionality of the program.

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