Satellite Communication -

Introduction
Unit 1

[Link] Christina
Professor
ECE Department
MAM Collge of Engineering and Technology
 Introduction
• Satellite - is a smaller object that revolves around a larger object in
space.
• Earth is a satellite - it moves around the sun.
• The moon is a satellite - it moves around Earth.
• Earth and the moon are called "natural" satellites.

[Link]

[Link]
• Communication - exchange (sharing) of information between two or
more entities, through any medium or channel. In other words, it is
nothing but sending, receiving and processing of information.
• Satellite communication - communication takes place between any
two earth stations through a satellite
• In this communication, electromagnetic waves are used as carrier signals.
These signals carry the information such as voice, audio, video or any other
data between ground and space and vice-versa.
• Soviet Union had launched the world's first artificial satellite - Sputnik
1 in 1957.
• Nearly after 18 years, India also launched the artificial satellite
named, Aryabhata in 1975.
Communications via satellite in the
telecommunications infrastructure
 Need of Satellite Communication
• The following two kinds of propagation are used earlier for communication up to some
distance.
• Ground wave propagation − Ground wave propagation is suitable for frequencies up to
30MHz. This method of communication makes use of the troposphere conditions of the
earth.
• The lowest portion of the atmosphere is the troposphere, a layer where temperature
generally decreases with height. This layer contains most of Earth’s clouds and is the location
where weather primarily occurs.
• Sky wave propagation − The suitable bandwidth for this type of communication is broadly
between 30–40 MHz and it makes use of the ionosphere properties of the earth.

• The maximum hop or the station distance is limited to 1500KM only in both ground wave
propagation and sky wave propagation. Satellite communication overcomes this limitation.
• Satellites provide communication for long distances, which is well beyond the line of sight.
• Since the satellites locate at certain height above earth, the communication takes place
between any two earth stations easily via satellite. So, it overcomes the limitation of
communication between two earth stations due to earth’s curvature.
 Overview
• Satellite is a microwave repeater in the space.
• Over 1700 satellites are placed, most of them are used for communication
• Over 40 countries and organizations have their own satellites
• They are:
• Wide area coverage of the earth’s surface.
• Transmission delay is about 0.3 sec.
• Transmission cost is independent of distance.
 How a Satellite Works
• A satellite is a body that moves around another body in a particular path.
• It is helpful in telecommunications, radio and television along with internet
applications.
• A communication satellite is a microwave repeater station in space.
• A repeater is a circuit, which increases the strength of the received signal and then
transmits it.
• But, this repeater works as a transponder. That means, it changes the frequency
band of the transmitted signal from the received one.
• The frequency with which, the signal is sent into the space is called as Uplink
frequency.
• Similarly, the frequency with which, the signal is sent by the transponder is called as
Downlink frequency. The following figure illustrates this concept clearly.
• The transmission of signal from first earth station to satellite
through a channel is called as uplink.
• The transmission of signal from satellite to second earth
station through a channel is called as downlink.
• Uplink frequency is the frequency at which, the first earth
station is communicating with satellite.
• The satellite transponder converts this signal into another
frequency and sends it down to the second earth station.
This frequency is called as Downlink frequency.
• In similar way, second earth station can also communicate
with the first one.
• The process of satellite communication begins at an earth
station. Here, an installation is designed to transmit and
receive signals from a satellite in an orbit around the earth.
• Earth stations send the information to satellites in the form
of high powered, high frequency (GHz range) signals.
• The satellites receive and retransmit the signals back to
earth where they are received by other earth stations in the
coverage area of the satellite. Satellite's footprint is the area
which receives a signal of useful strength from the satellite.
Up links and down links Frequency
• Satellite up links and down links can operate in different frequency
bands:
 Space station:
• A station located on an object which is beyond, is intended to go beyond, or has been
beyond, the major portion of the Earth's atmosphere
 Earth station:
• A station located either on the Earth's surface or within the major portion of the Earth's
atmosphere and intended for communication: - with one or more space stations; or -
with one or more stations of the same kind by means of one or more reflecting satellites
or other object
Pros and Cons of Satellite Communication

Advantages of using satellite communication:

• Area of coverage is more than that of terrestrial systems

• Each and every corner of the earth can be covered

• Transmission cost is independent of coverage area

• More bandwidth and broadcasting possibilites

Disadvantages of using satellite communication −

• Launching of satellites into orbits is a costly process.

• Propagation delay of satellite systems is more than that of conventional terrestrial systems.

• Difficult to provide repairing activities if any problem occurs in a satellite system.

• Free space loss is more

• There can be congestion of frequencies.

Disadvantages
• Time delay
• 500ms – 800ms
• Rain attenuation
• C band: < 2 dB
• Ku band: <20 dB
• The Sun Outage
• Twice a year, 10 min
• The Eclipse
• Twice a year, 5- 10 min period
Applications of Satellite Communication

• Radio broadcasting and voice communications

• TV broadcasting such as Direct To Home (DTH)
• Internet applications such as providing Internet connection for data transfer, GPS applications, Internet
surfing, etc.
• Military applications and navigations
• Remote sensing applications
• Weather condition monitoring & Forecasting
• Weather Forecasting
• Navigation Satellites
• Global Telephone
• Connecting Remote Area
• Global Mobile Communication
Orbits:
• LEO: Low Earth Orbit.
• MEO: Medium Earth Orbit
• GEO: Geostationary Earth Orbit. At the Geostationary
orbit the satellite covers 42.2% of the earth’s surface.
• Theoretically 3 geostaionary satellites provides 100%
earth coverage
 Orbits : Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO)
• Altitude (375-1000 miles)
• 0.8 GHz – 30 GHz range
• Revolution time: 90 min - 3 hours.
• Advantages:
• Reduces transmission delay
• Small, low-cost
• Eliminates need for bulky receiving equipment.
• Handles Broad band data
• Disadvantages:
• Smaller coverage area.
• Shorter life span (5-8 yrs.) than GEOs (10 yrs).

• Subdivisions: Little, Big, and Mega (Super) LEOs.

• Application : Vehicle tracking, environmental monitoring and
two-way data communication. Used for short, narrowband
communications
Middle-Earth-Orbiting (MEO)
• MEOs orbits between the altitudes of 5,600 and 9,500 miles.
• These orbits are primarily reserved for communications satellites that
cover the North and South Pole.
Geosynchronous-Earth-Orbit (GEO)

• Orbit is synchronous with the earths rotation.

• From the ground the satellite appears fixed.
• Altitude is about 36000 km.
• Coverage to 40% of planet per satellite.
SATELLITE FREQUENCY
MAC(Media Access Control)
protocols for satellite links
• ALOHA:
• Every station can transmit any time
• Very low efficiency 18- 36 %.
• FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access)
• It is the oldest and most common.
• the available satellite channel bandwidth is broken into
frequency bands for different earth stations.
• TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access)
• channels are time multiplexed sequentially
• Each earth station gets to transmit in a fixed time slot only.
• More than one time slot can be assigned to stations with
more bandwidth requirements.
• Requires time synchronization between the Earth Stations.
• CDMA : (Code Division Multiple Access)
• Combination of time/frequency multiplexing
( a form of spread spectrum modulation).
• It provides a decentralized way of providing separate
channels without timing synchronization. It is a relatively new
scheme but is expected to be more common in future
satellites.
VSAT Network
• At the Very Small Aperture Terminal a lower performance microwave transceiver
and lower gain dish antenna (smaller size) is used.
• VSAT networks are arranged in a star based topology.
• Ideal for centralized networks with a central host (Banking institutions with
branches all over the country).
• Use the S-ALOHA and TDMA
SATELLITE CLASSIFICATION
Function
• Scientific satellite
• Space physics exploration satellite, Astronomical satellite, Microgravity experimental satellite ,
• SACI, solrad-1, SJ-10
• Technology test satellite
• Biosatellite
• Applied satellite
• Communication satellite: Direct Broadcasting Satellite,
• Remote sensing satellite: Meteorological satellites
• Navigation satellites: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou
• Earth resources satellites: SMOS, SMAP, Ocean satellite, Landsat
Kepler’s three Law
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was one of the most accepted
scientist in describing the principle of a satellite that moves
around the earth.

1. The orbit of a planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the

two foci.
2. A line segment joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas
during equal intervals of time.
3. The square of the orbital period of a planet is proportional to the
cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit.
 Kepler’s First Law

• Kepler’s first law states that the path followed by a satellite around the primary will be
an ellipse. An ellipse has two focal points shown as F1 and F2.
• Center of mass of the earth will always present at one of the two foci of the ellipse.
• If the distance from the center of the object to a point on its elliptical path is considered,
then the farthest point of an ellipse from the center is called as apogee and the shortest
point of an ellipse from the center is called as perigee.
Eccentricity
• The eccentricity is defined as

 For a circle, e = 0
– The range of values of the eccentricity for ellipses is 0 < e < 1 , since a is
greater than b
– The higher the value of e, the longer and thinner the ellipse
 Kepler’s Second Law
• States that, for equal time intervals, a satellite will sweep out equal areas in its orbital plane,
focused at the barycenter.
• i.e for equal intervals of time, the area covered by the satellite will be same with respect to
center of mass of the earth.
• The satellite travels distances S1 and S2 meters in 1 s, then the areas A1 and A2 will be equal.
The average velocity in each case is S1 and S2 m/s, and because of the equal area law, it
follows that the velocity at S2 is less than that at S1.
• The satellite takes longer to travel a given distance when it is farther away from earth. Use is
made of this property to increase the length of time a satellite can be seen from particular
geographic regions of the earth.
Kepler’s Third Law
• Kepler’s third law states that the square of the periodic time of orbit is proportional
to the cube of the mean distance between the two bodies.
• The mean distance is equal to the semimajor axis a. For the artificial satellites
orbiting the earth, Kepler’s third law can be written in the form

a3=µ/(2∏/P)2 a3 =µP2/(2∏)2
where
• n is the mean motion of the satellite in radians per second and
• μ is the earth’s geocentric gravitational constant.
• a=distance between the two bodies, in km

• This equation suits only to the ideal situation of a satellite orbiting a perfectly
spherical earth of uniform mass, with no perturbing forces acting, such as
atmospheric drag.
• With n in radians per second, the orbital period in seconds is given by,
Kepler’s Third Law
• Comparison between multiple orbiting objects
)2 = )3
• Where
• T – stands for orbital period units of time but no sec.
Could be like days , months or years
• r - Average orbital radius of satellite
• Subscripts are the objects that are to be compared
• Example
• Average orbital radius
• Earth = 1.5X108 m
• Jupiter = 7.8 X 108 m
• Orbital period
• Earth = 1.0 years
• Jupiter = ?? (1.5X108/ 7.8 X 108 )3 =1.0/??
• Ans = 11.9 Years
Problems
Newton's law
Newton's first law:
• An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An
object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same
direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. This law is often called "the
law of inertia".
Newton's second law:
• Acceleration is produced when a force acts on a mass. The greater the mass (of
the object being accelerated) the greater the amount of force needed (to
accelerate the object).
Newton’s third law:
• For every action there is an equal and opposite re-action. This means that for
every force there is a reaction force that is equal in size, but opposite in direction.
That is to say that whenever an object pushes another object it gets pushed back
in the opposite direction equally hard.
Definitions of
Terms for Earth-
Orbiting
Satellites

Inclination The angle between the orbital

plane and the earth’s equatorial plane. It is
measured at the ascending node from the
equator to the orbit, going from east to
north.

Apogee The point

farthest from earth.

Perigee The point of closest

approach to earth.

Line of apsides : The line joining the

perigee and apogee through the center
of the earth.
Descending node The point where the
orbit crosses the equatorial plane
going from north to south.

Ascending node The point where

the orbit crosses the equatorial
plane going from south to north.

Line of nodes The line joining the

ascending and descending nodes
through the center of the earth.
• Prograde orbit: An orbit in
which the satellite moves in
the same direction as the
earth’s rotation .
• It is also known as a direct
orbit.
• The inclination of the orbit
always lies between 0 and 90°.
• Most satellites are launched in
this orbit .
• Because the earth’s rotational
velocity provides part of the
orbital velocity with a
consequent saving in launch
energy.
Retrograde orbit An orbit in which
the satellite moves in a direction
counter to the earth’s rotation,
The inclination of a retrograde
orbit always lies between 90 and
180°.
Argument of perigee The angle from ascending
node to perigee, measured in the orbital plane at
the earth’s center, in the direction of satellite
motion.
Right ascension of the ascending node :
For an absolute measurement of an orbit , a
fixed reference in space is required.

The reference chosen is the first point of

Aries, otherwise known as the vernal, or
spring, equinox.

It occurs when the sun crosses the equator

going from south to north,

An imaginary line is drawn from this

equatorial crossing through the center of the
sun points to the first point of Aries
(symbol ). The right ascension of the ascending node
is then the angle measured eastward, in
This is the line of Aries. the equatorial plane, from the line to the
ascending node.
 Orbital
elements
A set of mathematical parameters that enables us to accurately describe satellite
motion
Purpose:
• Discriminate one satellite from other satellites
• Predict where a satellite will be in the future or has been in the past
• Determine amount and direction of movement or perturbation
The Six Keplerian Elements
1. Size/Period
2. Shape (Circular or Ellipse)
3. Inclination
4. Right Ascension
5. Argument of Perigee
6. True Anomaly
 1. Size/Period
• Size is how big or small your satellite’s orbit is….
• Defined by semi-major axis “a”
• There are basically 4 sizes of orbits satellites use:
• Low Earth Orbit (LEO): approx 120 – 1200 miles above Earth
• Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) or Semi-synchronous Orbit: approx 12,000 miles
above Earth
• Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO): altitude varies greatly! From 100 miles to
sometimes several hundred thousand miles
• Geo-synchronous or Geo-stationary Orbit
(GEO): approx 22,300 miles from Earth
2. Shape
• Orbit shapes are either circular or not circular: some sort of an
Ellipse!!
• How elliptical an orbit, is called Eccentricity
Circular Orbits Elliptical Orbits
• Characteristics • Characteristics
• Constant speed • Varying speed
• Nearly constant altitude • Varying altitude
• Asymmetric Ground Track
• Typical Missions • Typical Missions
• Reconnaissance/Weather (DMSP) • Deep space surveillance
• Manned (Pioneer)
• Navigational (GPS) • Communications (Polar
• Geo-synchronous (Comm sats) comm.)
• Ballistic Missiles
Eccentricity “e”
e = 0.75

e = .45

e=0
 3. Inclination “i”
• Inclination is the tilt of your orbit. It is expressed as the angle between a
reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object .
• At 0 degrees of inclination, you are orbiting the equator
• At 90 degrees of inclination, you are in a polar orbit

Equatorial Plane

Inclination: Is this angle, measured in deg

Inclination

Orbital Plane
Inclination “i”

Prograde: 0  i < 90

Equatorial: i = 0 or 180

Polar: i = 90

Retrograde: 90  i < 180

[Link] Ascension “Ω”
• Right Ascension is the twist of your tilt, as measured from a fixed point in space,
called the First Point of Aries
• Right Ascension will determine where your satellite will cross the Equator on the
ascending pass
• It is measured in degrees

Inclination

Lin
eo
fN
od
First Point Right Ascension

es
is this angle,
of Aries measured in
degrees
()
5. Argument of Perigee “ω”
• Argument of Perigee is a measurement from a fixed point in space to where
perigee occurs in the orbit
• It is measured in degrees

Perigee

Argument of
Perigee: Is
this angle,
Inclination measured in
degrees

Lin
eo
Apogee

fN


od


s e
 6. True Anomaly
True Anomaly is a measurement from a fixed point in space to the actual satellite location
in the orbit
It is measured in degrees True Anomaly:
Is this angle,
measured in
degrees
Direction of satellite
motion

Fixed point in
space
Apogee and Perigee Heights
• the length of the radius vectors at apogee and perigee can be
obtained from the geometry of the ellipse
• In order to find the apogee and perigee heights, the radius of the
earth (6371km) must be subtracted from the radii lengths,
 Problem 2
• Calculate the apogee and perigee heights for the orbital parameters for e = .0011501. Assume a mean earth
radius of 6371 km and a = 7192.335 km
ra = 7192.335(1+ 0.0011501)
= 7200.607 km
rp = 7192.335(1- 0.0011501)
= 7184.063 km
 Orbit Perturbations
• Assumes that the earth is a uniform spherical mass and that the only force acting is
the centrifugal force resulting from satellite motion balancing the gravitational pull of
the earth.

• In practice, other forces which can be significant are the gravitational forces of the
sun and the moon and atmospheric drag.

• The gravitational pulls of sun and moon have negligible effect on low-orbiting
satellites, but they do affect satellites in the geostationary orbit

• Atmospheric drag, on the other hand, has negligible effect on geostationary satellites
but does affect low orbiting earth satellites below about 1000 km.
 Orbit Perturbations
Effects of a nonspherical earth
• Shape of Earth is not a perfect sphere, it causes some variations in the path followed by the
satellites around the primary.

• For a spherical earth of uniform mass, Kepler’s third law gives the nominal mean motion n0 as

• The 0 subscript - for a perfectly spherical earth of uniform mass.

Oblate
sphere
Effects of a nonspherical earth
• However not practically

• K1 is a constant which evaluates to 66,063.1704 km2.

• The earth’s oblateness has negligible effect on the semi major axis a,
• If a is known, the mean motion is readily calculated.
• The orbital period taking into account the earth’s oblateness is termed the
anomalistic period ( p=
Effects of a nonspherical earth
• The anomalistic period is
• where n is in radians per second.
• If the known quantity is “n” one can solve the above Eq. for “a” , keeping in mind
that n0 is also a function of “a”.
• The above equation may be solved for “a” by finding the root of the following
equation:

𝑛 − 𝑛𝑜 ¿
 Orbit Perturbations
Effects of a nonspherical earth

• As the Earth is bulging from the equatorial belt, and it is the forces resulting from an
oblate Earth which act on the satellite produce a change in the orbital parameters.

• This causes the satellite to drift as a result of (1)regression of the nodes and the
(2)latitude of the point of perigee (point closest to the Earth).

• This leads to rotation of the line of apsides. As the orbit itself is moving with respect to
the Earth, the resultant changes are seen in the values of argument of perigee and right
ascension of ascending node.

• Both effects depend on the mean motion n, the semimajor axis a, and the eccentricity e
Effects of a nonspherical earth
• The oblateness of the earth also produces two rotations of the orbital
plane.
• regression of the nodes,
• where the nodes appear to slide along the equator.
• In effect, the line of nodes, which is in the equatorial plane, rotates about the
center of the earth.
• Thus , the right ascension of the ascending node, shifts its position.
• These factors can be grouped into one factor K given by

• K will have the same units as n. Thus, with n in rad/day, K will be in rad/day, and with n in degrees/day, K will be in
degrees/day. An approximate Ω expression for the rate of change of with respect to time is

• where i is the inclination. The rate of regression of the nodes will have the same units as n.
• When the rate of change) is negative, the regression is westward, and when the rate is positive, the regression is eastward.
• It will be seen, therefore that for eastward regression, i must be greater than 90o, or the orbit must be retrograde. It is
possible to choose values of a, e, and i such that the rate of rotation is 0.9856°/day eastward
• The other major effect produced by the equatorial bulge is a rotation of the line of apsides. This line rotates in
the orbital plane, resulting in the argument of perigee changing with time. The rate of change is given by

• When the inclination i is equal to 63.435°, the term within the parentheses is equal to zero, and hence no
rotation takes place. Use is made of this fact in the orbit chosen for the Russian Molniya satellites
• Denoting the epoch time by t0, the right ascension of the ascending node by Ω0, and the argument of perigee
by w0 at epoch gives the new values for Ω and w at time t as

• The orbit is not a physical entity, and it is the forces resulting from an oblate earth, which act on the satellite to
produce the changes in the orbital parameters. Thus, rather than follow a closed elliptical path in a fixed plane,
the satellite drifts as a result of the regression of the nodes, and the latitude of the point of closest approach (the
perigee) changes as a result of the rotation of the line of apsides .
 Effects of a nonspherical earth
• If the orbit is prograde the nodes slide
westward,
• if retrograde, they slide eastward.
• As seen from the ascending node, a
satellite in prograde orbit moves
eastward, and in a retrograde
orbit,westward.
• The nodes therefore move in a
direction opposite to the direction of
satellite motion, hence the term
regression of the nodes.
• For a polar orbit (i = 90°), the
regression is zero.
Problem
• A satellite is orbiting in the equatorial plane with a period from perigee to
perigee of 12 h. Given that the eccentricity is 0.002, calculate the semimajor axis.
The earth’s equatorial radius is 6378.1414 km.
Answer
• Non perturbed value a = 26597 km
• Perturbed Value a = 26598.6 km
Atmospheric Drag

• Atmospheric drag is the atmospheric force (friction) acting opposite to the

relative motion of an object
• For satellites below 1000 km (LEO), the effects of atmospheric drag are
significant.
• The impact of this drag is maximum at the point of perigee.
The drag acts to reduce the velocity at this point, resulting the satellite not to
reach the same apogee height on successive revolutions.
• As a result the semi major axis and the eccentricity are both reduced.
• Drag does not noticeably change the other orbital parameters, including perigee
height.
Atmospheric Drag
• An approximate expression for the change of major axis is

• The mean anomaly is also changed.

• An approximate expression for the amount by which it changes is

How does satellite works
• [Link]

• GTO and GEO

• [Link]

• GEO
• [Link]
• NPTEL
• [Link]
 Station Keeping
• Orbital control, often called station keeping, is the process of maintaining a satellite in its
proper orbit location
• The non-spherical (oblate) properties of the earth, primarily exhibited as an equatorial bulge,
cause the satellite to drift slowly in longitude along the equatorial plane.
• Satellites need to have their orbits adjusted from time to time because the satellite initially
placed in the correct orbit, natural forces induce a progressive drift.
• Satellites have a supply of fuel allocated for station keeping and this fuel is used gradually
over a planned lifetime period of 7 to 15 years to keep the satellite within typically +/- 0.15
deg east west and +/-0.15 deg north/south of its nominal orbit position.
• There are two types of station keeping
1. East – West station keeping : this is the correction along the axis.
2. North – South Station Keeping : this is to correct the change in inclination.
• Control jets are pulsed to impart an opposite velocity component to the satellite, which
causes the satellite to drift back to its nominal position. These corrections are referred to as
east-west station keeping maneuvers, which are accomplished periodically every two to three
weeks
Station Keeping
• Latitude drift will be induced primarily by gravitational forces from the sun and the
moon. These forces cause the satellite inclination to change about 0.075◦ per month if
left uncorrected. Periodic pulsing to compensate for these forces, called north-south
station keeping maneuvers, must also be accomplished periodically to maintain the
nominal satellite orbit location.
• Northsouth station-keeping and east-west station keeping tolerance requirements ±0.1◦
for C-band, and ±0.05◦ for Ku-band.
• North-south station keeping requires much more fuel than east-west station keeping, and
often satellites are maintained with little or no north-south station keeping to extend on-
orbit life.
• The satellite is allowed to drift with a higher inclination, with the drift compensated for
on the ground with tracking and/or smaller aperture antennas.
• Satellites in the 6/4-GHz band must be kept within 0.1° of the designated longitude, and
in the 14/12-GHz band, within 0.05°.
GEO stationary and Non Geo-stationary orbits
Geostationary orbit
• A satellite orbits the earth at exactly the same speed as the earth turns and at the
same latitude, specifically zero, the latitude of the equator.
• A satellite orbiting in a geostationary orbit appears to be flying in the same spot
in the sky, and is directly over the same patch of ground at all times.
Geosynchronous orbit
• Satellite is synchronized with the earth's rotation, but the orbit is tilted with
respect to the plane of the equator.
• A satellite in a geosynchronous orbit will wander up and down in latitude,
although it will stay over the same line of longitude.
• Although the terms 'geostationary' and 'geosynchronous' are sometimes used
interchangeably, they are not the same technically; geostationary orbit is a subset
of all possible geosynchronous orbits.
 GEO stationary and Non Geo-stationary orbits

• The first geosynchrous satellite was orbited in 1963, and the first geostationary one the
following year.
• Since the only geostationary orbit is in a plane with the equator at 35,786 kilometers,
there is only one circle around the world where these conditions obtain.

Three conditions are required for an orbit to be geostationary:

1. The satellite must travel eastward at the same rotational speed as the earth.
2. The orbit must be circular.
3. The inclination of the orbit must be zero.
GEO stationary and Non Geo-stationary orbits
• The first condition is obvious. If the satellite is to appear stationary, it must rotate
at the same speed as the earth, which is constant.
• The second condition follows from this and from Kepler’s second law . Constant
speed means that equal areas must be swept out in equal times, and this can
only occur with a circular orbit.
• The third condition, that the inclination must be zero, follows from the fact that
any inclination would have the satellite moving north and south,, and hence it
would not be geostationary.
• Movement north and south can be avoided only with zero inclination, which
means that the orbit lies in the earth’s equatorial plane.
 GEO stationary
• Radius of geostationary orbit aGSO,

• The period P for the geostationary is 23 h, 56 min, 4 s mean solar time. This is the time taken for the
earth to complete one revolution about its North–South axis,
aGSO = 42164 km
• The equatorial radius of the earth, to the nearest kilometer, is
aE =6378 km
• The geostationary height is
hGSO = aGSO - aE
= 42164 – 6378= 35786 km apprx 36,000Km
 GEO stationary Orbit drift
• A precise geostationary orbit cannot be attained because of disturbance
forces in space and the effects of the earth’s equatorial bulge.
• The gravitational fields of the sun and the moon produce a shift of about
0.85°/year in inclination.
• Also, the earth’s equatorial ellipticity causes the satellite to drift eastward
along the orbit.
• In practice, station keeping maneuvers have to be performed periodically
to correct for these shifts
 Look angle determination
• Look angle – The coordinates to which an earth station antenna must be pointed to
communicate with a satellite. For geostationary orbit, these angels values does not change as
the satellites are stationary with respect to earth. Thus large earth stations are used for
commercial communications.
• These are azimuth (Az) and elevation (El) angle
• Azimuth is measured eastward (clockwise) from geographic north to the projection of the
satellite path on a (locally) horizontal plane at the earth station.
• Elevation is the angle measured upward from the local horizontal plane at the earth
station to the satellite path.
 Elevation Angle
• Elevation angle is the vertical angle formed between the direction of travel
of an electromagnetic wave radiated from an earth station antenna
pointing directly toward a satellite and the horizontal plane
• (angle measured from horizontal plan to the orbit plane)

 The smaller the angle of elevation, the greater the distance a

propagated wave must pass through Earth’s atmosphere.
 As distance increases, the signal quality deteriorates
 Generally, 5° is considered as the minimum acceptable
angle of elevation.
Calculating Look angle
• Need six Orbital Elements
• Calculate the orbit from these Orbital Elements
• Define the orbital plane
• Locate satellite at time t with respect to the First Point of Aries
• Find location of the Greenwich Meridian relative to the first point of
Aries
• Use Spherical Trigonometry to find the position of the satellite relative
to a point on the earth’s surface
Parameter needed to calculate look angle
• The earth-station latitude, denoted by λE
• Angular distance, measured in degrees,
north or south of the equator. L from -90
to +90 (or from 90 S to 90N)
• The earth-station longitude, denoted here by
φE
• Angular distance, measured in degrees,
from a given reference longitudinal line
(Greenwich, London).l from 0 to 360E (or
180W to 180E)
• The longitude of the subsatellite point,
denoted here by φSS (satellite longitude)
 Geometry involving to determine look angle
• ES - the position of the earth station
• SS - subsatellite point- The subsatellite
point is the location on the surface of the
earth that lies directly between the
satellite and the center of the earth
(interection point.
• S the position of the satellite
• d is the range from the earth station to
the satellite.
• α -the angle is an angle to be
determined. (line connect to earth center
to satellite and line from earth center to
earth satation)
 Spherical geometry
• In the spherical triangle,
• All sides are the arcs of a great circle. Three sides of this triangle
are defined by the angles subtended by the centre of the earth..
• Side a - the angle between the radius to the north pole and the
radius to the subsatellite point, a= 90°.
• A spherical triangle in which one side is 90° is called a quadrantal
triangle.
• Side b - the angle between the radius to the earth station and
the radius to the subsatellite point.
• Side c - the angle between the radius to the earth station and
the radius to the north pole. c = 90° - λE.
• Angle A is the angle between the plane containing c and the plane containing b.
• Angle B is the angle between the plane containing c and the plane containing a.

• Angle C is the angle between the plane containing a and the plane containing b.

• When the earth station is west of the subsatellite point, B is negative,

• When east, B is positive.
• When the earth-station latitude is north, c is less than 90°,
• when south, c is greater than 90°.
 Azimuth Angle calculation
• Napier’s rules gives angle b as
1. cos b =cos a cosc + sin c sin a cos B
a = 90 ; c =90 -λE

Cos b = cos 90 cos (90 - λE ) + sin (90- λE) sin 90 cos B (cos 90 = 0, sin90 =1)

= sin (90- λE) sin 90 cos B (sin(θ)=cos(90∘−θ), sin (90° - θ) = cos θ)

= cos λE cos B
Center angle b = arc cos (cos λE cos B)
• Napier’s rules gives angle A as
SinA /Sin a = SinB /sinb
Sin A = Sin B /Sin b
Azimuth angle A ( intermediate angle )= arc sin (sin B /sin b)
 Angle of elevation calculation
• Applying the cosine rule for plane triangle to the triangle

Range d
b2 = a2 + c2 – 2ac cos β

d= R2 + aGSO2 – 2RaGSO cos b

Elevation Angle
Sin A / Sin B = (a/b)

Sin (90+El)/ sin b = aGSO / d

Cos El / sin b = aGSO / d

 Problem
• An earth station situated in the Docklands of London, England, needs to calculate the look
angle to a geostationary satellite in the Indian Ocean operated by Intelsat. The details of the
earth station site and the satellite are as follows:
Earth station latitude and longitude are 52.0°N and 0°, respectively. Satellite longitude (i.e.,
the subsatellite point) is 66.0° E.
The earth-station latitude λE = 52.0°N, earth-station longitude φE =0, longitude of the
subsatellite point φSS 66.0° E.
Sol B = -66.0
Central angle b = arc cos (cos λE cos B) = arc cos (cos 52.0 cos 66) =75.49
Azimuth angle A = arc sin (sin B /sin b) =75.49
 Limits of visibility
• For an earth station in any given location, the earth’s curvature establishes the limits of visibility (i.e line
of sight limit)
• Limits of visibility means the east and west limits of geostationary arc visible from any given Earth
station.
• These limits are depends on
• geographic coordinates of the Earth station
• antenna elevation.
• the earth-station latitude.
• Theoretically, the maximum line of sight is achieved when the
earth station’s antenna is pointing along the horizontal
(i.e zero elevation angle) plane.
• But in practice, the noise picked up from Earth and the signal attenuation from Earth’s atmosphere at
zero elevation angle is excessive.
• Therefore an elevation angle of 5º is generally accepted as being the minimum usable elevation
angle.
 Expression for Limits of Visibility:
Case 1:When earth station is at equator
• Consider an Earth station at the equator with the antenna pointing
either east or west along the horizontal,
Cos θ =aE/aGSO

• for this situation, an earth station could see satellites over a

geostationary arc bounded by 81.3° about the earth-station
longitude.
• To avoid reception of excessive noise from the earth, some
minimum value of elevation is used, which will be
denoted here by El min. A typical value is 5°.
• let S represent the angle subtended at the satellite when the angle
σmin = 90° + Elmin.
• Applying the sine rule gives

• Once angle B is found, the satellite longitude can be determined from

 Earth Eclipse of Satellite
• A satellite is said to be in eclipse when the earth or
moon prevents sunlight from reaching it.
• If the earth’s equatorial plane coincides with the plane
of earth’s orbit around sun, the geostationary orbit will
be eclipsed by the earth. This is called the earth eclipse
of satellite.
• For a geostationary satellite, the solar eclipse due to
earth occurs during two periods that begin 23 days
before equinox and ends 23 days after equinox. Because
during equinox (autumn and spring) the sun, earth and
the satellite are in the same plane.
• Solar eclipses are important as they affect the working
of the satellite because during eclipse satellite receives
no power from its solar panels and it has to operate on
its onboard standby batteries which reduce satellite life.
• Satellite failure is more at such times when satellite enters into eclipse (sudden switch to no
solar power region) and when it moves out of eclipse (suddenly large amount of solar power is
bombarded on satellite) as this creates thermal stress on satellite.
• Eclipse caused by moon occurs when moon passes in front of sun but that is less important as
it takes place for short duration (twice in every 24 hours for an average of few minutes).
• Satellites in the east eclipse will happen late evening local time.
• Satellites in the west eclipse will happen in the early morning hour’s local time
Way to avoid eclipse during satellite lifetime:

• Satellite longitudes which are west rather than east of the earth station are most
desirable.
• When satellite longitude is east of the earth station, the satellite enters eclipse
during daylight and early morning hours of the earth station. This can be undesirable
if the satellite has to operate on reduced battery power
• When satellite longitude is west of the earth station, eclipse does not occur until the
earth station is in darkness when usage is likely to be low.
 Sub satellite Point
• Point at which a line between the satellite and
the center of the Earth intersects the Earth’s
surface
• Location of the point expressed in terms of
latitude and longitude
• If one is in the US it is common to use
• o Latitude – degrees north from equator
• o Longitude – degrees west of the Greenwich
meridian
• Location of the sub satellite point may be
calculated from coordinates
 Sun Transit Outage
• Sun transit outage is an interruption in or distortion of
geostationary satellite signals caused by interference from
solar radiation.
• Sun appears to be an extremely noisy source which
completely blanks out the signal from satellite. This effect
lasts for 6 days around the equinoxes. They occur for a
maximum period of 10 minutes.
• Generally, sun outages occur in February, March, September
and October, that is, around the time of the equinoxes.
• At these times, the apparent path of the sun across the sky
takes it directly behind the line of sight between an earth
station and a satellite.
• As the sun radiates strongly at the microwave frequencies
used to communicate with satellites (C-band, Ka band and Ku
band) the sun swamps the signal from the satellite.
• The effects of a sun outage can include partial degradation, Outage angle =(11/ (Frequency) x (Diameter))+ 0.25°
that is, an increase in the error rate, or total destruction of
the signal.
 Launching Process
• Low Earth Orbiting satellites are directly injected into their orbits.
• When the orbital altitude is greater than 1,200 km it becomes
expensive to directly inject the satellite in its orbit.
• This cannot be done incase of GEOs as they have to be positioned
36,000kms above the Earth‟s surface.
• Launch vehicles are hence used to set these satellites in their orbits.
• These vehicles are reusable or . They are also known as „Space
Transportation System‟(STS).
• A satellite must be placed in to a transfer orbit between the initial
lower orbit and destination orbit. The transfer orbit is commonly
known as *Hohmann-Transfer Orbit or Geo transfer orbit
• The Hohmann elliptical orbit is seen to be tangent to the low
altitude orbit at perigee and to the high-altitude orbit at apogee.
 Launching procedure & Vehicle
• The process of placing the satellite in a proper orbit is known as launching process. During this
process, from earth stations we can control the operation of satellite. Mainly, there are four
stages in launching a satellite.
• First Stage − The first stage of launch vehicle contains rockets and fuel for lifting the satellite
along with launch vehicle from ground.
• Second Stage − The second stage of launch vehicle contains smaller rockets. These are ignited
after completion of first stage. They have their own fuel tanks in order to send the satellite
into space.
• Third Stage − The third (upper) stage of the launch vehicle is connected to the satellite fairing.
This fairing is a metal shield, which contains the satellite and it protects the satellite.
• Fourth Stage − Satellite gets separated from the upper stage of launch vehicle, when it has
been reached to out of Earth's atmosphere. Then, the satellite will go to a “transfer orbit”. This
orbit sends the satellite higher into space.
• When the satellite reached to the desired height of the orbit, its subsystems like solar panels
and communication antennas gets unfurled. Then the satellite takes its position in the orbit
with other satellites. Now, the satellite is ready to provide services to the public.
 Launch Process
• The rocket injects the satellite with the required thrust (push) into the
transfer orbit.
• Thrust is a reaction force described by Newton's second and third laws.
When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction the accelerated
mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction on that system
• With the STS, the satellite carries a perigee kick motor which
imparts the required thrust to inject the satellite in its transfer orbit.
• Similarly, an apogee kick motor (AKM) is used to inject the satellite in its
destination orbit.
• Generally it takes 1-2 months for the satellite to become fully functional. The
Earth Station performs the Telemetry Tracking and Command function to control
the satellite transits and functionalities.
• Kick Motor refers to a rocket motor regularly employed on artificial satellites
destined for a geostationary orbit.
• As the vast majority of geostationary satellite launches are carried out from
spaceports at a significant distance away from Earth's equator.
• The carrier rocket would only be able to launch the satellite into an elliptical orbit
of maximum apogee 35,784-kilometres and with a non-zero inclination
approximately equal to the latitude of the launch site.
• TT&C: It is a sub-system where the functions performed by the satellite control
network to maintain health and status, measure specific mission parameters and
processing over time a sequence of these measurement to refine parameter
knowledge, and transmit mission commands to the satellite.
 Satellite Launch Vehicles
• Satellite launch vehicles launch the satellites into a particular orbit based on the requirement.
Satellite launch vehicles are multi stage rockets. Following are the two types of satellite launch
vehicles.
• Expendable Launch Vehicles (ELV)
• Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLV)
Expendable Launch Vehicles
• Expendable launch vehicles (ELV) get destroyed after leaving the satellites in space.
Reusable Launch Vehicles (Space shuttle)
• Reusable launch vehicles (RLV) can be used multiple times for launching satellites. Generally,
this type of launch vehicles will return back to earth after leaving the satellite in space.
• The functions of space shuttle are similar to the functions of first and second stages of ELV.
Satellite along with the third stage of space shuttle are mounted in the cargo bay. It is ejected
from the cargo bay when the space shuttle reaches to an elevation of 150 to 200 miles.
• Then, the third stage of space shuttle gets fired and places the satellite into a transfer orbit.
After this, the space shuttle will return back to earth for reuse.