Analytical solutions for Earth discontinuous coverage of satellite constellation with repeating ground tracks

This paper presents an analytical model for calculating the Earth discontinuous coverage of satellite constellation with repeating ground tracks by integrating and extending the application of coverage region and route theory. Specifically, the visibility condition for a ground point is represented as a coverage region in the two-dimension map of visibility properties, and the trajectories of satellites with circular orbits and repeating ground tracks are converted to several inclined lines in the map. By analyzing the intersections of the lines and the edge of the coverage region, the coverage durations for the ground point can be calculated. Based on the point coverage, the variations of coverage characteristics along the parallel are analyzed, and the regional or global coverage characteristics of constellations can be obtained. Numerical examples show that the proposed method can accurately and rapidly calculate the coverage characteristics, e.g. revisit time and coverage time. The calculated results are extremely close to those of the Satellite Tool Kit (STK) and are also superior to the existing research results. The proposed analytical model can be a useful tool for constellation design and coverage performance analysis.