Design and Development of Elevation Independent Tracking System for the Remote Sensing Satellite Data Acquisition

Remote sensing satellites are of the class of LEO and hence visible to any ground station for a short period of time around 5 to 15 minutes in a given orbit. They also move with velocities greater than 6 to 8 km/sec. The azimuth velocity is a function of CosEL and hence as the elevation angle approaches 90deg (>87.5deg) the velocity requirements cross the system limits/specifications. Hence a model has been developed and validated to make it functional so that Elevation independent data acquisition can take place with certain considerations. The paper deals with one such model developed and used for the remote sensing satellites