Prediction Method of Agile Satellite's In-View Periods Based on Analytical Bounding Curves

This article presents a general method to predict agile satellite's in-view periods to a ground target for an arbitrary sensor field. First, the basic mathematical model, including the characteristic curve, to define arbitrary field of view and equivalent sensor field to describe a sensor field after pitch–roll maneuverability equivalently are introduced. Then, based on the concept of the virtual synthesized field denoting a larger field, including all possible equivalent sensor fields, the agile satellite's in-view problem is transformed into an ordinary satellite’s in-view problem, which can be accurately solved by calculating the intersection points between the projected site-satellite relative position curve and the boundary of the synthesized field. To obtain its boundary, the analytical bounding curve equations, which describe the point in the boundary of the synthesized field, are proposed. The simulation results demonstrate that the presented method is efficient and accurate, suggesting its wide applications for coverage analysis and mission planning for agile satellites.