Satellite Orbits

It was announced few days ago that a 6-ton NASA weather no-longer functioning
satellite that was launched in 1991 would crash into Earth some time between
Thursday, 22 September 2011 and Saturday, 24 September 2011. It eventually
crashed early on Saturday somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. NASA stated that
they would know of the approximate time and location of its crash only about 2
hours before its crash. The orbit of this satellite is known, so why was NASA not
able to know when and where it will crash exactly?

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/09/21/exclusive-track-nasas-falling-65-ton-
satellite-in-real-time/

The answer is that the rate at which the orbit of that satellite or any other object
decays (drops) is a function of the atmospheric drag, which in turn is related to the
aerodynamics of that satellite or object. A non-operational satellite or some piece of
space junk may not be symmetric so its drag coefficient changes as it tumbles
around. So, the rate at which it drops will vary significantly on what attitude is its
travel. This makes it impossible to know when and where it will eventually slow
down significantly to change its orbit and crash.

Locating a Satellite from an Earth Station (Look

Angles)
It is very important for someone who works in the field of satellites to be able to locate a satellite
in the sky in order to point an antenna at it and possibly be able to track it as it moves in the sky if
it is not a GEO satellite. The standard format for determining the location of a satellite in the sky
is called the determination of the “look angles”. These look angles determine the position that the
observer of a satellite has to point his antenna to be able to receive/transmit to the satellite. The
look angles are two angles called:

• Azimuth (AZ): This is the angle measured in the plane parallel to the horizon measure
from the polar north (the top-most point on Earth) going clockwise. So,
this angle has a value between 0° and 360° such that North is 0°, East is
90°, South is 180°, and West is 270°.
• Elevation (EL): This is the angle measured in the plane perpendicular to the horizon
measure from the horizon going up towards to the vertical line to the
horizon. So, this angle has a value between –90° and +90° such that the
horizontal direction is 0°, Vertically upwards +90°, vertically downwards
is –90°.
In addition to these angles, it is usually useful to know the distance from the earth station (or
observer) to the satellite for some important computations related to signal attenuation for
example.

• Distance (d): This is the distance from the observer or Earth station to the satellite. This
distance is equal to the satellite altitude (height of satellite above Earth’s
surface) if the observer is standing exactly under the satellite (the satellite
appears exactly above the observer) and is greater than the satellite
altitude if the satellite is not exactly above the observer.

In the process of computing the Azimuth, Elevation, and Distance to the satellite, two angles that
are not important by themselves but are important for the computation of these quantities must be
evaluated.

• Earth’s Central Angle (γ): This is the angle at the center of Earth between the location of
the Earth station and the location of the satellite (or what we call sub-
satellite point). So, imagine that you are at the center of Earth and you
point one hand towards the Earth station and the other towards the
satellite. This angle is the angle between your two hands and is limited
between 0° and 180°. This angle is 0° if the satellite is exactly on top of
the Earth station (the Earth station is at the sub-satellite point), is equal to
180° when the satellite is exactly on the opposite side of the Earth station.
• The intermediate angle (α): This is the angle between the North or South direction and the
sub-satellite point. This angle is always between 0° and 180°. The
Azimuth is computed from this angle.

The above angles and quantities are shown in the following figure:
The parameters needed to find the Azimuth, Elevation, and Distance to the satellite are the
following:

LE = Latitude of Earth station (Degrees) [North angles are Positive and South are Negative]

le = longitude of Earth station (Degrees) [East angles are Positive and West are Negative]

LS = Latitude of Sub-Satellite point (Deg.) [North angles are Positive and South are Negative]

ls = longitude of Sub-Satellite point (Deg.) [East angles are Positive and West are Negative]

rS = Radius of Satellite (km) = Satellite altitude (as) + Radius of Earth (rs)

The resulting quantities from the following measurements are

EL = Elevation angle (Degrees)

AZ = Azimuth angle from North (Degrees)

d = Distance between Satellite and Earth Station (km)

First, we have to find the Earth central angle (γ) using the following relation

γ = cos −1 ⎡⎣cos ( LE ) cos ( LS ) cos ( ls − le ) + sin ( LE ) sin ( LS ) ⎤⎦

This allows us to compute the distance to the satellite (d) given by

2
⎛r ⎞ ⎛r ⎞
d = rS 1 + ⎜ E ⎟ − 2 ⎜ E ⎟ cos ( γ )
⎝ rS ⎠ ⎝ rS ⎠

When the distance to the satellite is found, we can find the elevation angle (EL) which is either
positive or negative depending on the location of the satellite with respect to the Earth station

If rS2 > d 2 + rE2

⎛r ⎞
EL = + cos −1 ⎜ S ⋅ sin ( γ ) ⎟ ⇒ Satellite is visible
⎝d ⎠
If rS < d + rE
2 2 2

⎛r ⎞
EL = − cos −1 ⎜ S ⋅ sin ( γ ) ⎟ ⇒ Satellite is NOT visible
⎝ d ⎠

Important Note:
The EL angle in the above derivation must be positive (> 0°) for the satellite to be visible. This is
practically inaccurate because for low angles (0° – 5°), the satellite is so low near the horizon that
the received signal from that satellite (or the received signal by the satellite from Earth) is highly
attenuated. In fact, it is usually considered that the minimum angle for a satellite to be visible is
5° for signals in the C band (4 to 8 GHz), 10° for signals in the Ku band (11 – 14 GHz), and 20°
for signals in the Ka band (26 – 40 GHz). Below these angles, the received signals are unusable.
The next to last step is to find the intermediate angle (α) which is given as

⎛ sin ls − le ⋅ cos ( LS ) ⎞
α = sin −1 ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟
⎝ sin ( γ ) ⎠

The last step is evaluating the Azimuth which is conditioned on the location of the Earth station
with respect to the sub-satellite point as follows

•When LS > LE
If ls > le ⇒ AZ = α (Satellite is North-East of Earth station)
If ls < le ⇒ AZ = 360° − α (Satellite is North-West of Earth station)
•When LS < LE
If ls > le ⇒ AZ = 180° − α (Satellite is South-East of Earth station)
If ls < le ⇒ AZ = 180° + α (Satellite is South-West of Earth station)

Parameters for Setting Satellite Orbits

We have learned so far that satellite orbits can be classified into:

1. Circular or Elliptical: Circular orbits are generally used for commercial

communication satellite while elliptic orbits are used for some specialized
satellites (many spy satellites have elliptical orbits). One use of elliptic orbits is
due to the fact that the satellite slows down when it is near it apogee, which
means that the satellite remains visible at a specific Earth station for long periods
of time in each orbit.
2. LEO, MEO, or HEO Orbits: These descriptions are usually used for circular orbits
of different heights. It is clear that a satellite in an elliptical orbit may have its
complete orbit in one of these heights, however, an elliptical orbit may partially
be in the LEO region for part of the orbit and in the MEO, or even HEO in other
parts of the orbit, especially for highly elliptical orbits, so some elliptical orbits
may not fit in the classification of LEO, MEO, or HEO if the difference in altitude
between the apogee and perigee points is significantly high.

However, these classifications are not sufficient to determine the exact orbit of a satellite.
That is, there exist an infinite number of orbits that are circular, elliptical, LEO, MEO, or
HEO. So, the above are not sufficient to indicate the exact orbit of a satellite. Three more
parameters are needed for this task considering only circular orbits. These parameters
are

3. The Orbit Inclination: The inclination of an orbit is the angle the plane of the orbit
makes with the plane of Earth’s equator. So, an orbit in the same plane of the
equator (called an Equatorial orbit) has an inclination of 0°, while an orbit that
passes over the North and South poles (called a Polar orbit) has an inclination of
 90°, other orbits that are different from equatorial and polar orbits have
inclinations between 0° and 90°.

The following figure shows orbits with different inclination angles

Inclination of Blue = 0°, Green = 18°, Red = 36°, Cyan = 54°, Purple = 72°, Black = 90°

4. The Inclination Phase: Not all orbits with the same inclination are the same. That
is, there are an infinite number of different orbits with the same inclination. For
example, two satellite orbits may have the same inclination of 30° but one of them
crosses the plane of the equator at the longitudes of 0° and 180°, while the other
crosses the plane of the equator at the longitudes of 10° and 190°.

The following figure shows orbits with same inclination angle but with different
inclination phases
Phase of Blue = 0°, Green = 10°, Red = 20°, Cyan = 30°, Purple = 40°, Black = 50°
All orbits have the same inclination of 60°.

5. The Satellite Phase in its Orbit: Even for a particular orbit, multiple satellites may
have that same orbit but each one of them may be at a different point in that orbit.
That is, the different satellites are following each other in the same orbit.

The following figure shows different satellites in the same orbits but at different
phase of the orbit.

Orbital Phase of Blue = 0°, Green = 60°, Red = 120°, Cyan = 180°, Purple = 240°,
Black = 300°
All satellites have the same orbit with the same inclination of 60° and the same
inclination phase of 0°.