Design of Microsatellite Constellation for Weather Observation and Communication Mission

摘要

In this paper the weather observation and communication satellite constellation design applied to Taiwan area is presented. The weather observation area was defined as 60° E to 180° E and 0°N to 60°N. The mission requires acquiring at least one weather image per hour covering this observation area. The walker constellation analysis is employed to calculate the minimum number of satellites for this mission requirement. The result showed that the 18/18/4 constellation satisfactorily meets the mission requirements. In the communication satellite constellation design, the Walker analysis is also employed with assumed angle of elevation greater than 5 degree and 800km circular orbit. The results showed that minimum number of satellites of constellation is 36/9/4 with an inclination angle of 35°, which satisfy the continuous coverage of the region of 2000 km radius with center at Taiwan.