Improving atmospheric modeling using small satellite constellation data

卫星轨道受到大气阻力、太阳辐射压、J2等摄动的影响，这些摄动对卫星的轨道和姿态运动有很大的影响。卫星运行对摄动模型的精度要求很高。对于低地球轨道（LEO）上的许多卫星，最大的动力学模型的不确定性来自大气阻力。因此，在卫星轨道预测、卫星寿命分析、空间碎片演化模拟等应用中，都需要一个高精度的大气模型。然而，要得到高精度的大气密度模式是非常困难的，在过去的几十年里，人们做了很多努力。本研究旨在发展有效的方法，以改善大气模式使用小卫星星座数据和新的估计方法。这些方法随后可应用于卫星飞行任务，以便更好地在轨运行。COM DEV已经向低地球轨道发射了几颗卫星，并计划发射更多的卫星用于各种应用。该项目的研究成果将有助于更好地了解大气阻力对卫星轨道和姿态运动的影响，并将这些影响纳入设计和分析考虑。

Satellites on orbits experience many perturbations such as atmospheric drag, solar radiation pressure, J2, etc. These perturbations have big influences on orbit and attitude motion. A high-accuracy perturbation model is highly demanded for satellite operation. For many satellites in low earth orbit (LEO), the largest dynamic model uncertainty stems from atmospheric drag. Therefore, a high-accuracy atmospheric model is required for many applications, such as satellite orbit prediction, satellite life expectancy analysis and modeling the space debris evolution. However, it is very hard to get the high accuracy atmospheric density model and many efforts have been tried in the past decades. This research project aims to developing effective methodologies to improve atmospheric model using small satellite constellation data and novel estimation approaches. These methods can then be applied to satellite missions for better on-orbit operations. COM DEV has launched several satellites to LEO and has plan to launch more satellites for various applications. The research outcome from this project will help them in better understanding the influences of atmospheric drag on satellite orbit and attitude motion and taking these effects into design and analysis considerations.