一种计算星座卫星星间链路日凌的快速算法
A Fast Algorithm to Calculate Transits of Inter-satellite Links between Constellation Satellites
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摘要: 随着卫星技术的发展与成熟, 星间链路(Inter-satellite Link, ISL)在导航卫星、通讯卫星等卫星星座中得到了广泛的应用, 以此实现高效的星间通讯和测量. 由于星间链路的建立或维持会受到日凌的影响, 因此在卫星星座的设计、规划中往往需要对不同卫星、不同链路所受日凌的影响进行计算和预测, 评估星间链路、系统服务受日凌的影响, 更好地规划、设计相关业务. 当前无论是利用成熟卫星系统设计工具搭建场景还是相关单位内部自研仿真系统, 通常会基于外推星历逐个历元判断链路与太阳视线方向夹角, 以此来判断和预测日凌. 这一方式简单、直观、方便实现, 但缺点是计算效率低下. 虽然设计阶段的日凌计算并不需要十分准确的星历, 通常基于二体模型外推卫星星历即可, 但如果需要准确判断日凌可能发生的次数、时间、时长, 那么往往要求卫星星历时间间隔很短, 否则有可能错过持续时间不长的日凌, 影响评估效果. 针对日凌的判断和计算提出了一种快速算法. 通过构造日凌发生、结束时刻卫星纬度辐角u满足的方程, 解析判断日凌是否可能发生, 计算日凌始末的卫星纬度辐角, 快速实现对星间链路日凌存在性以及日凌始末时刻的计算. 这一算法也需要事先外推星历, 但星历步长只要不超过1个轨道周期即可. 计算表明, 该算法可以在稳定检测到比传统方法更多日凌的情况下将计算时间减少2~3个量级. 即使外推星历的步长接近1个轨道周期, 该方法也可以检测到超过99.9%的日凌弧段, 且计算结果高度稳定, 日凌发生时刻和持续时长偏差最大也不超过1 s.Abstract: With the development and readiness of inter-satellite link (ISL), it has been widely used in satellite constellations for navigation, communication and other purposes. As establishing or maintaining ISL can be affected by transits (also known as sun outage), transits of the links need to be calculated and predicted, so the system service can be properly assessed and scheduled. Currently the normal practice to determine and predict the transits, by building scenarios using proven commercial satellite system toolkit or by developing in-house simulation tools, is to calculate the elongation between the ISL and the line-of-sight of the Sun, based on propagated ephemerides. It is simple, straight forward and can be conveniently implemented, however, it bears a significant disadvantage that the computation is extremely CPU-intensive and therefore slow in speed. Although the predicted transits do not have to be very precise in the design phase and the two-body model may suffice, the ephemerides are always limited to small stepsize in order to properly detect the transits. Otherwise transits with short duration may be overlooked and the service assessment can be compromised. Regarding the determination and calculation of the transits, a fast algorithm is proposed in this paper. With the equation of the satellite's argument of latitude u at the transit boundary, it can be analytically determined whether a transit may occur or calculated when the transit starts or ends, allowing fast assessment of how transits affect the service. This method is also based on propagated ephemerides, but a much larger stepsize can be accepted. Tests show that the analytical method can outperform the normal practice by detecting more transits while reducing calculation time by two to three orders of magnitude. Even the stepsize of the ephemerides is close to one orbital period, this method is still able to detect more than 99.9% transits. The results are robust against varying stepsizes, where the maximum deviations of calculated onset epochs and durations of the transits would not exceed 1 second.
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