ECE 5233 Satellite Communications

Prepared by:
Dr. Ivica Kostanic
Lecture 5: Orbital perturbations, launch and
orbital effects
(Section 2.3-2.6)

Spring 2014
Outline

Orbital perturbations
Launches and launch vehicles
Placing a satellite in a geo-stationary orbit
Orbital effects
Examples

Important note: Slides present summary of the results. Detailed

derivations are given in notes.

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 Sources of orbital perturbations

 Orbital perturbation – difference between real orbit and Keplerian orbit obtained
from two body equations of motion
 Major sources of orbital perturbations
o Perturbations due to non-ideal Earth
o Third body perturbations
o Atmospheric drag
o Solar radiation and solar wind
 Importance of perturbation source depends on the satellite altitude
 Modeling of the real satellite orbit
o Find “osculating orbit” at some time
o Assume orbit elements vary linearly with time
o Use measured data to determine rate of change for orbital parameters

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Effects of non-ideal Earth

 Earth is not a sphere

o Equatorial radius: ~ 6,378 km
o Polar radius: ~ 6,356 km (about 22km smaller)
o Equatorial radius not constant (small variations ~ 100m)
 Earth mass distribution
o Earth mass distribution not uniform
o Regions of mass concentrations: mascons
 Non-ideal Earth causes non-ideal gravitational field
 For LEO and MEO satellites this effect is not very significant
 GEO satellites are impacted the most
o GEO satellites drift towards mascons in the “east-west” direction
o Longitudes of two stable equilibrium points: 75°E and 252°E (or 108°W)
o Longitudes of two unstable equilibrium points: 162°E and 348°E (or 12°W)

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 Third-body perturbation
 Motion of the satellite is not a “two-body” problem
 Satellite experiences gravitational pull from Sun
and Moon as well
 The orbital relationship is complex and time
dependent
 Gravitational forces from Sun and Moon tend to
move satellite out of the orbit
 Under these condition the orbit will precess and
its inclination will change (up to 1°/year)
 In practice:
o Some of these effects are planed
o Most of these effects are corrected using
the on-board fuel Orbital position of a satellite the
o For GEO stationary satellite, the goal is to Earth, the Sun and the Moon
keep its apparent position within 0.05
degree box

Note: Orbital parameters are continuously measured

and published as TLE data

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Atmospheric drag
 Significant for satellites below 1000km
 Drag reduces the velocity of the satellite
o Semi-major axis is reduced
o Eccentricity is reduced
 Approximate equation for change of semi-
Example: Consider ISS. From TLE data
Mean motion: 15.72137770 rev/day
Derivative of MM/2: 0.00011353 rev/day2
a/a0 (%)
100.00%

Semimajor axis change

major axis 95.00%

2 / 3
 n 
90.00%

a  a0 1  0 t  t0  85.00%
a/a0 (%)

 n0  80.00%
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
where Elapsed time (days)

a0 – semi-major axis at t0
Note: change is relatively small and it
n0 – mean motion (revs/day) is long term. In practice it can be
easily resolved through satellite
n‘0 – first derivative of mean motion (rev/day2) maneuvering.

Note: Derivative of mean motion is provided in TLE data

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Propagators

 Determine position of a satellite over time  Semi-analytic – combination of analytical

 Three types: and numerical methods

o Analytic o LOP – Long-term Orbital Predictor.

Uses same elements as analytic
o Semi-analytic propagators. Accurate over many
o Numerical months.

 Analytic – approximate motion of the o SGP4 for non LEO satellites

satellite through closed form equations  Numerical – Solve complex sets of
o TwoBody – considers only forces of differential equations. Accuracy is
gravity from Earth, which is obtained at the expense of computational
modeled as a point mass speed

o J2 Perturbation – models Earths o Astrogator – used for trajectory and

oblateness, solar and lunar maneuver planning and includes
gravitational forces targeting capabilities

o J4 Perturbation – second order o HPOP – High Precision Orbital

improvements of J2 Perturbation Propagator. Uses the same orbital
elements as the analytic
o SGP4 - Simplified General propagators.
Perturbations

Note: Propagators are included in commercial software packages

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 Satellite launch
 Two categories of satellite launches
o Expandable launch vehicles
 Ariane (EU)
 Atlas, Delta (US)
 Soyuz (Russia)
o Reusable launch vehicles
 Space Shuttle (STS) – up to 2011
 Dragon, Falcon 9 (Space X)
 Buran? Orion?
 Launches are usually done in several stages
o Launch vehicle is used to place satellite in one of the
transfer LEO orbits
o Satellite is maneuvered from a transfer orbit into the final
orbit
 Due to Earth rotation – the launch is easiest from equator
o Velocity boost from Earth rotation ~ 0.47km/sec
o LEO orbits require velocities ~ 7.5km/sec
o Launching from equator ~ 6% fuel savings
Some of the most frequently used
 Launches from sites that are not on the equator place satellites launch sites
in inclined orbits
o If the satellite is to be placed in GEO stationary orbit, the
correction of the orbit inclination needs to be performed

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 Two typical GEO satellite launch approaches

Case 1: single Case 2: two

elliptical orbit transfer orbits

 Case 1: Launch vehicle puts the satellite into an elliptical transfer orbit
o The orbit has high eccentricity with apogee at the geostationary (or geosynchronous) orbit
o When the satellite passes through apogee, additional velocity is given to the satellite by Apogee Kick
Motor (AKM) and the satellite changes orbits
o If the orbit is not GEO stationary, additional adjustments are required to correct for the orbit inclination
 Case 2: Lunch vehicle put the satellite into circular LEO orbit
o Two maneuvers are required
o Perigee maneuver to transform circular orbit into elliptical orbit, and
o Apogee maneuver to transform elliptical orbit into GEO stationary orbit

Note: other launch approaches are possible

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Example of GEO launches: French Guyana and KSC

Launch from French

Guyana

Launch from Cape

Carnival, FL

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Orbital effects

 Motion of the satellite has significant impact on its

performance
 Some of the orbital effects to take into account
o Doppler shift
o Solar eclipse
o Sun transit outage

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Doppler shift
 Important in case of LEO and MEO satellites
 Negligible for GEO satellites
 Caused by relative motion between the satellite
and earth station
 The magnitude of Doppler shift is given by:
Example. Consider LEO satellite in circular polar
orbit with altitude of 1000km. Transmit frequency is
2.65GHz.
The velocity of satellite in orbit
T 2  4 2 re  h /   6306.94 sec
3

vs  2 re  h  / T  7.350km/sec
f R  fT f VT
  Largest component of velocity between satellite and
fT fT c Earth station occurs when the satellite is coming out
f  VT fT / c  VT /  of horizon directly over the station

vr max  vs cos   vs
re
 6.354km/sec
Where: fR – received frequency, fT – transmit re  h
frequency, VT – velocity between satellite and Maximum Doppler shift
Earth station,  – wavelength, c – speed of light
f max  vr max fT / c  56.13kHz

Note: the shift becomes larger with

higher frequencies.

Geometry used for calculation of

maximum velocity Page 12
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Solar eclipse
 Eclipse – sunlight fails to reach satellite due to obstruction
from either Earth or Moon
 More common type of eclipse – eclipse due to satellite
coming in the shadow of the earth
 For geostationary satellite the solar eclipse occurs for about
82 days every year
 The eclipse times vary from day to day
 The longest eclipses are on equinox days (days when the
Geometry of solar eclipse sun passes through equatorial plane) – Nominally: March 21st
and September 23st
 When the satellite passes through eclipse
o It loses its source of power (relies on battery power)
o It may need to shut off some of its transponders
o Experiences cooling down in temperature
o Transients due to switching of the equipment and
temperature variations may cause equipment failure

Note: for non geostationary satellites

orbital study necessary to determine
Duration of solar eclipse of a geo
stationary satellite relative to equinox time eclipse times
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Sun transit outage
 Sun transit outage - occurs when the satellite
passes in front of the Sun
 Sun is a source of electromagnetic radiation
 Sun – noise source with equivalent temperature
of 6000K – 11000K
 In most cases this noise overcomes link design
margins
Geometry of sun transit eclipse
 During sun transit outage – communication lost
 Duration of the outage as much as 10 min/day
 For geo-stationary satellites outages occur
0.02% of the time
 Duration problematic since it usually occurs in a
traffic intensive part of the day
 Satellite providers try to re-route the traffic
through other satellites

Radiation spectrum of the Sun

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