ECE 5233 Satellite Communications

Prepared by:
Dr. Ivica Kostanic
Lecture 3: Orbital Elements
(Sections 2.2-2.7)

Spring 2014
Outline

Orbital elements (geocentric equatorial coordinates)

Rotating coordinate system
Two Line Element (TLE) data
Mapping between coordinate systems
Examples

Important note: Slides present summary of the results. Detailed derivations

are given in notes.

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 Geocentric equatorial coordinate system (GEC)

 GEC – fixed rectangular coordinate

system
 GEC – moves through the space, but
does not rotate
 Used in astronomy to map the sky
 The angles of interest
o W - right ascension – angle from
positive x-axis to the point where
satellite comes out of the equatorial
plane
o i – inclination of the orbit – angle
between orbital plane and
equatorial plane
o w – argument of perigee – angular
X axis points to “first point of Aries” – distant star
distance between perigee and the
point where the satellite comes out All satellites have their GEC coordinates given in
of the equatorial plane “Two line elements” (TLE) data

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Example: Two line data for space station

TLE data – used by NORAD and NASA

TLA – data is used for precise calculations of satellite positions
Access: http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/
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 Rotating rectangular system
 Natural way to view space objects if you are on Earth
 System is fixed to the Earth (i.e. it translates and
rotates along with the Earth)
 X-axis goes through (0,0) lat-lon point  In summary: 3 systems are used
o Orbital systems
o GEC system
o Rotating system
o Position of the satellite is mapped between the
coordinated systems using linear
transformations

e Angular velocity of Earths rotation (72 urad/sec)

Te Time since last alignment between

GEC and rotating system

Rotating and GEC systems align

once/day (at different times) Page 5
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Transformation between coordinate systems

Mapping between orbital system and GEC

 xi  cos   cos    sin   cos i  sin     cos   sin    sin   cos i  cos   sin   sin i    x0 
 y   sin   cos    cos   cos i  sin    cos   sin    sin   cos i  cos    cos   sin  i    y 
 i   0 
 zi   sin i  sin   sin i  cos   cos i    z0 
or
ri  M 1  ,  , i  r0

Mapping between GEC and rotating system

 xr   cos  eTe  sin   eTe  0  xi 
 y    sin   T  cos  T  0  y 
 r  e e e e  i 
 zr   0 0 1  zi 
or
rr  M 2   e , Te  ri

Mapping between orbital and and rotating system

rr  M 2   e , Te   M 1  ,  , i  r0
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Calculation of  eTe

 eTe Angle between GEC and rotating system

 eTe   g , 0  0.25068447t degrees

t – time in min after Universal Time midnight

 g , 0  99.6909833  36000.7689Tc  0.00038708Tc2
Tc   JD  2415020 / 36525 Julian centuries
JD  Julian day

Julian day reference point:

Noon of December 31st, 1899; Start of JD 2415020
JD calculator: http://www.nr.com/julian.html

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Calculation of  eTe
Symbol Value Unit Explanation
t 1320 min after midnight Current time in minutes after last midnight UTC
JD 2455577 Julian day Current Julian day (see website http://www.nr.com/julian.html)
Tc 1.110376454 Julian centuies Julian day expressed in Julian centuries after 12/31/1899
Alphag,0 114.0975904 degrees
Omega,e*Te 85.0010908 degrees
Omega,e*Te 1.483548902 radians

Note: Black - inputs, red-outputs

Instructions
1 Deterimine time in min after midnight - entry B2 (note 1 day = 1440 min)
2 Determine current Julian day using website - entry B3
3 Use either B6 or B7 in further calculations

Example: calculate WeTe for January 15th, 2011 at 5PM EST

1. Calculate t (A:1320)
2. Determine JD (A: 2455577)
3. Use spreadsheet above
Answer: ~ 85 degrees

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Six orbital elements
 To specify position of a satellite one needs 6 orbital elements
 Selection somewhat arbitrary

 Quantities adopted by the text  Quantities adopted by the TLE data

o Eccentricity (e) o Eccentricity (e)
o Semi-major axis (a) o Mean motion in rev/day (Mm)
o Time at the perigee (tp) o Mean anomaly (M)
o Right ascending node angle (W) o Right ascending node angle (W)
o Inclination (i) o Inclination (i)
o Argument of the perigee (w) o Argument of the perigee (w)
Note: TLE data is given for a given time
For calculation of time at perigee reference
 1/ 2
M    t  t p ,   3/ 2
a  23h 56min 4.1sec 
2
4 2 3
For calculation of semi-major axis T 
2
  a
 Mm  

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Example 1.
Calculate rotating coordinates for ISS at the time when TLE data are taken
TLE Data for ISS (obtained on OCT 26, 2013):
1 25544U 98067A 13298.22562148 .00015844 00000-0 27472 -3 0 8812
2 25544 51.6491 184.0276 0002282 77.2230 68.9667 15.4953682854871
Note: Calculation details are given in notes.
Some results are as follows:
o Eccentric anomaly E = 1.204173
o Semi-major axis: a = 6783.8km
o Orbital coordinates: x0 = 2430.21km; y0 = 6332.95km
o Rotating coordinates: xr = -4201.9km, yr = -4428.57km, zr = 2957.01km

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