Simulation of shuttle trajectory and attitude for a SAR-simulator

For realistic simulation of SAR sensors and the SAR imaging process it is indispensable to describe the satellite's trajectory and its attitude in the height interval between 200 and 800 km most accurately. The used model of the dominant disturbances upon the ideal elliptic orbit consists of the rotational symmetric gravitation model including the zonal harmonic J4, furthermore a realistic, analytically computable air density resistance model based upon the rotation of the atmosphere and a parameter dependent varying air density. Modelling inner stochastic influences including white, Gaussian noise completes the simulation. The simulation is implemented as a module into the SiSAR-simulator in ADA under VMS/DEC Windows Motif. Its graphical user interface and the high degree of modularity of the incorporated trajectory and attitude simulator guarantee good handling.<>