The Effect of Atmospheric Drag Force on the Elements of Low Earth Orbital Satellites at Minimum Solar Activity

Researching and modeling perturbations is essential in astrodynamics because it gives information on the deviations from the satellite's normal, idealized, or unperturbed motion. Examined the impact of non-conservative atmospheric drag and orbital elements of low-earth-orbit satellites under low solar activity. The study is consisting of parts, the first looks at the effects of atmospheric drag on LEO satellites different area to mass ratios, and the second looks at different inclination values. Modeling the impacts of perturbation is included in each section, and the final portion determines the effects of atmospheric drag at various node values. The simulation was run using the Celestial Mechanics software system's SATORB module (Beutler, 2005), which solves the perturbation equations via numerical integration. The findings were examined using Matlab 2012. Conclusion that the impacts are stronger for retrograde orbits, which is due to the fact that the satellite moves in the opposite direction. The atmospheric drag effects for all orbital elements were increased by increasing the area to mass ratio. When the node value rises, the size parameter changes slightly, but the other orbital elements change. At varying inclinations, it is found that the changes in orbital elements due to atmospheric drug.

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Effect of Air Drag Force on Low Earth Orbit Satellites During Maximum and Minimum Solar Activity

Space Research Journal ◽

10.3923/srj.2016.1.9 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 1-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

S.W. Samwel ◽

Kh.I. Khalil

Keyword(s):

Solar Activity ◽

Drag Force ◽

Low Earth Orbit ◽

Earth Orbit ◽

Air Drag ◽

Minimum Solar Activity ◽

Low Earth Orbit Satellites

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Increasing the Accuracy of Orbital Elements for a Satellite in a Low Earth Orbit under the Influence of Atmospheric Drag Using Adams-Bashforth Method

Iraqi Journal of Science ◽

10.24996/ijs.2021.si.2.9 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 81-90

Author(s):

Rasha H. Ibrahim ◽

Abdul-Rahman H. Saleh

Keyword(s):

Integration Method ◽

Major Axis ◽

Low Earth Orbit ◽

True Anomaly ◽

Earth Orbit ◽

Atmospheric Drag ◽

Orbital Elements ◽

Semi Major Axis ◽

Literature Reviews ◽

Perturbed Equation

The perturbed equation of motion can be solved by using many numerical methods. Most of these solutions were inaccurate; the fourth order Adams-Bashforth method is a good numerical integration method, which was used in this research to study the variation of orbital elements under atmospheric drag influence. A satellite in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO), with altitude form perigee = 200 km, was selected during 1300 revolutions (84.23 days) and ASat / MSat value of 5.1 m2/ 900 kg. The equations of converting state vectors into orbital elements were applied. Also, various orbital elements were evaluated and analyzed. The results showed that, for the semi-major axis, eccentricity and inclination have a secular falling discrepancy, Longitude of Ascending Node is periodic, Argument of Perigee has a secular increasing variation, while true anomaly grows linearly from 0 to 360°. Furthermore, all orbital elements, excluding Longitude of Ascending Node, Argument of Perigee, and true anomaly, were more affected by drag than other orbital elements, through their falling as the time passes. The results illustrate a high correlation as compared with literature reviews in this field.

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Atmospheric drag effects on modelled LEO satellites during the July 2000 Bastille Day event in contrast to an interval of geomagnetically quiet conditions

10.5194/angeo-2020-33 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Victor U. J. Nwankwo ◽

William Denig ◽

Sandip K. Chakrabarti ◽

Muyiwa P. Ajakaiye ◽

Johnson Fatokun ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Geomagnetic Activity ◽

Low Earth Orbit ◽

Decay Rates ◽

Satellite Orbits ◽

Percentage Increase ◽

Atmospheric Drag ◽

Mean Values ◽

Satellite Drag ◽

Ballistic Coefficient ◽

The Impact

Abstract. In this work we simulated the effects of atmospheric drag on two model SmallSats in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with different ballistic coefficients during 1-month intervals of solar-geomagnetic quiet and perturbed conditions. The goal of this effort was to quantify how solar-geomagnetic activity influences atmospheric drag and perturbs satellite orbits. Atmospheric drag compromises satellite operations due to increased ephemeris errors, attitude positional uncertainties and premature satellite re-entry. During a 1-month interval of generally quiescent solar-geomagnetic activity (July 2006) the decay in altitude (h) was a modest 0.53 km (0.66 km) for the satellite with the smaller (larger) ballistic coefficient of 2.2 × 10−3 m2/kg (3.03 × 10−3 m2/kg). The associated Orbital Decay Rates (ODRs) during this quiet interval ranged from 13 m/day to 23 m/day (from 16 m/day to 29 m/day). For the disturbed interval of July 2000 the significantly increased altitude loss and range of ODRs were 2.77 km (3.09 km) and 65 m/day to 120 m/day (78 m/day to 142 m/day), respectively. Within the two periods more detailed analyses over 12-day intervals of extremely quiet and disturbed conditions revealed respective orbital decays of 0.16 km (0.20 km) and 1.14 km (1.27 km) for the satellite with the smaller (larger) ballistic coefficient. In essence, the model results show that there was a 6–7 fold increase in the deleterious impacts of satellite drag between the quiet and disturbed periods. We also estimated the enhanced atmospheric drag effect on the satellites' parameters caused by the July 2000 Bastille Day event (in contrast to the interval of geomagnetically quiet conditions). The additional percentage increase due to the Bastille Day event to the monthly mean values of h and ODR are 34.69 % and 50.13 % for Sat-A, and 36.45 % and 68.95 % for Sat-B. These simulations confirmed; (i) the dependence of atmospheric drag force on a satellite's ballistic coefficient, and (ii) that increased solar-geomagnetic activity substantially raises the degrading effect of satellite drag. In addition, the results indicate that the impact of short-duration geomagnetic transients can have a further deleterious effect on normal satellite operations. While none of these findings were particularly surprising or profound we suggest that a model of satellite drag when combined with a high-fidelity atmospheric specification, as was done here, can lead to improved satellite ephemeris estimates.

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Atmospheric drag effects on modelled low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites during the July 2000 Bastille Day event in contrast to an interval of geomagnetically quiet conditions

Annales Geophysicae ◽

10.5194/angeo-39-397-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 39 (3) ◽

pp. 397-412

Author(s):

Victor U. J. Nwankwo ◽

William Denig ◽

Sandip K. Chakrabarti ◽

Muyiwa P. Ajakaiye ◽

Johnson Fatokun ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Geomagnetic Activity ◽

Low Earth Orbit ◽

Earth Orbit ◽

Satellite Orbits ◽

Percentage Increase ◽

Atmospheric Drag ◽

Drag Effect ◽

Satellite Drag ◽

Ballistic Coefficient ◽

The Impact

Abstract. In this work, we simulated the atmospheric drag effect on two model SmallSats (small satellites) in low Earth orbit (LEO) with different ballistic coefficients during 1-month intervals of solar–geomagnetic quiet and perturbed conditions. The goal of this effort was to quantify how solar–geomagnetic activity influences atmospheric drag and perturbs satellite orbits, with particular emphasis on the Bastille Day event. Atmospheric drag compromises satellite operations due to increased ephemeris errors, attitude positional uncertainties and premature satellite re-entry. During a 1-month interval of generally quiescent solar–geomagnetic activity (July 2006), the decay in altitude (h) was a modest 0.53 km (0.66 km) for the satellite with the smaller (larger) ballistic coefficient of 2.2×10-3 m2 kg−1 (3.03×10-3 m2 kg−1). The associated orbital decay rates (ODRs) during this quiet interval ranged from 13 to 23 m per day (from 16 to 29 m per day). For the disturbed interval of July 2000 the significantly increased altitude loss and range of ODRs were 2.77 km (3.09 km) and 65 to 120 m per day (78 to 142 m per day), respectively. Within the two periods, more detailed analyses over 12 d intervals of extremely quiet and disturbed conditions revealed respective orbital decays of 0.16 km (0.20 km) and 1.14 km (1.27 km) for the satellite with the smaller (larger) ballistic coefficient. In essence, the model results show that there was a 6- to 7-fold increase in the deleterious impacts of satellite drag between the quiet and disturbed periods. We also estimated the enhanced atmospheric drag effect on the satellites' parameters caused by the July 2000 Bastille Day event (in contrast to the interval of geomagnetically quiet conditions). The additional percentage increase, due to the Bastille Day event, to the monthly mean values of h and ODR are 34.69 % and 50.13 % for Sat-A and 36.45 % and 68.95 % for Sat-B. These simulations confirmed (i) the dependence of atmospheric drag force on a satellite's ballistic coefficient, and (ii) that increased solar–geomagnetic activity substantially raises the degrading effect of satellite drag. In addition, the results indicate that the impact of short-duration geomagnetic transients (such as the Bastille Day storm) can have a further deleterious effect on normal satellite operations. Thus, this work increases the visibility and contributes to the scientific knowledge surrounding the Bastille Day event and also motivates the introduction of new indices used to describe and estimate the atmospheric drag effect when comparing regimes of varying solar–geomagnetic activity. We suggest that a model of satellite drag, when combined with a high-fidelity atmospheric specification as was done here, can lead to improved satellite ephemeris estimates.

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Simulation of atmospheric drag effect on low Earth orbit satellites during intervals of perturbed and quiet geomagnetic conditions in the magnetosphere-ionosphere system

2020 International Conference in Mathematics, Computer Engineering and Computer Science (ICMCECS) ◽

10.1109/icmcecs47690.2020.247003 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Victor Uchenna. J. Nwankwo ◽

William Denig ◽

Muyiwa P. Ajakaiye ◽

Wahabbi Akanni ◽

Johnson Fatokun ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Low Earth Orbit ◽

Earth Orbit ◽

Atmospheric Drag ◽

Drag Effect ◽

Low Earth Orbit Satellites

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A Novel Navigation Approach of Low Earth Orbit Satellites Formation Based on Reduced Relative Orbital Elements

10.1007/978-981-15-8155-7_28 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 343-354

Author(s):

Shengqing Yang ◽

Yaoke Du ◽

Wenyan Wang ◽

Junli Chen ◽

Jingyu Wu

Keyword(s):

Low Earth Orbit ◽

Earth Orbit ◽

Orbital Elements ◽

Low Earth Orbit Satellites

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The impact of intense fluxes of energetic protons on the low-latitude ionosphere

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202019601011 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 196 ◽

pp. 01011

Author(s):

Alla Suvorova ◽

Alexei Dmitriev

Keyword(s):

Radiation Belt ◽

Energetic Particles ◽

Low Earth Orbit ◽

Ion Concentration ◽

Low Latitude ◽

Simultaneous Observation ◽

Low Earth Orbit Satellites ◽

Low Latitude Ionosphere ◽

The Impact ◽

Earth’S Radiation Belt

Experiments on board low-Earth orbit satellites show that energetic particles (tens of keV) of the Earth’s radiation belt can penetrate to the equatorial ionosphere. Impact of the energetic particles on the upper atmosphere and ionosphere was studied for the case of the geomagnetic storm on 22 July 2009. We present changes of local ion concentration in the low-latitude ionosphere at night measured by the C/NOFS satellite at heights 400-800 km during the magnetic storm and quiet days. The ionospheric density during the storm was compared with a simultaneous observation of enhancements of 30-80 keV proton fluxes measured by the NOAA/POES satellites near the equator at height ~850 km. We suggest that ionospheric irregularities at night can be caused by effect of energetic protons.

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