Analysis of Spaceborne Tandem Configurations for Complementing COSMO with SAR Interferometry
- PDF / 786,811 Bytes
- 12 Pages / 600 x 792 pts Page_size
- 100 Downloads / 202 Views
Analysis of Spaceborne Tandem Configurations for Complementing COSMO with SAR Interferometry A. Moccia Dipartimento di Scienza e Ingegneria dello Spazio “L.G. Napolitano,” Universit`a degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II,” Piazzale Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy Email: [email protected]
G. Fasano Dipartimento di Scienza e Ingegneria dello Spazio “L.G. Napolitano,” Universit`a degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II,” Piazzale Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy Email: [email protected] Received 29 June 2004; Revised 22 December 2004 This paper analyses the possibility of using a fifth passive satellite for endowing the Italian COSMO-SkyMed constellation with cross- and along-track SAR interferometric capabilities, by using simultaneously flying and operating antennas. Fundamentals of developed models are described and potential space configurations are investigated, by considering both formations operating on the same orbital plane and on separated planes. The study is mainly aimed at describing achievable baselines and their time histories along the selected orbits. The effects of tuning orbital parameters, such as eccentricity or ascending node phasing, are pointed out, and simulation results show the most favorable tandem configurations in terms of achieved baseline components, percentage of the orbit adequate for interferometry, and covered latitude intervals. Keywords and phrases: spaceborne SAR interferometry, multiplatform interferometry, cross-track interferometry, along-track interferometry, mission analysis.
1.
INTRODUCTION
COSMO-SkyMed is the Italian constellation for high spatial and temporal resolution SAR imaging of the Earth [1, 2]. COSMO stands for COnstellation of small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation and, basically, it consists of four satellites in sun-synchronous orbit, orbiting in the same plane and phased at 90◦ , each equipped with an advanced Xband SAR (synthetic aperture radar). Constellation orbital parameters are reported in Table 1. The program has been approved and founded, the development is carried out by Alenia Spazio as prime contractor, under management of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and the launch of the first satellite is scheduled in 2006. The possibility of flying a passive satellite, that is equipped with a receiving-only antenna, in formation with COSMO-SkyMed for bistatic applications has been investigated in [3, 4]. The study has been conducted assuming that no modifications should be included in design and operaThis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
tion of the main mission, in order to avoid both expensive redesign and checkout phases at this stage of COSMO development, and degradations of its nominal performance. This fifth satellite, named BISSAT (BIstatic Sar SATellite), could fulfill also interferometric applications, by selecting adequate tandem orbits, thus obtaining interfero
Data Loading...
