Increased Operational Availability and Simplified Operations Using Dither Gyro Scale Factor Calibration

Abstract

The traditional approach to on-orbit gyro scale factor calibration has been to perform large angle rotations about each gyro axis. The maneuvers require the science instruments to be taken offline, reducing operational availability and require a significant amount of interaction from the ground. To increase operational availability and to reduce the burden on mission operators, a novel approach to gyro scale factor calibration was developed, modeled and successfully demonstrated on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-16) to estimate gyro scale factor errors to within 1500 parts per million (ppm) without taking the science instruments offline.

Strategies to Maximize Science Data Availability for the GOES-R Series of Satellites

“…This will show if scale factor has drifted faster or further than expected, requiring the small slew recalibration sooner than five years, or conversely, if it indicates lower than expected drift, the recalibrations could be postponed or eliminated, minimizing operational downtime and data loss. [6] Although dither is mostly non-invasive, dither can trigger false lightning events on the Global Lightning Mapper (GLM) if performed during daylight hours due to the tuning of the GLM event detection algorithms. For this reason, dither calibrations are performed around midnight.…”