Umit C. Yilmaz and Ismail H. Cavdar
International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sicences, vol. 16, no. 3, pp.445-450, 2015

Abstract : Generally, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are used to collect image or video from earth’s surface. The collected data are stored on-board and/or transmitted to the main ground station directly or via polar ground station using terrestrial line. Today, an intersatellite link between a LEO and a GEO satellite allows transmission of the collected data to the main ground station through the GEO satellite. In this study, an approach for a continuous communication starting from LEO through GEO to ground station is proposed by determining the optimum ground station locations. In doing so, diverse ground stations help to determine the GEO orbit as well. Cross-correlation of the long term daily rainfall averages are multiplied with the logarithmic correlation of the sites to calculate the joint correlation of the diverse ground station locations. The minimum values of this joint correlation yield the optimum locations of the ground stations for Q/V-band communication and satellite control operations. Results for several case studies are listed.

Keyword : site-diversity, Q/V band, satellite communication, turnaround ranging