Novel method to calculate satellite visibility for an arbitrary sensor field

Abstract This paper presents a novel method for calculating the satellite-ground visibility periods for an arbitrary field of view (FOV) of the sensor. First, the characteristic curve was defined in the calculation plane to describe the geometric properties of the FOV of the sensor loaded on the satellite. Furthermore, based on the geometric relationships between the satellite and the ground point, the visibility criterion when the ground target is visible to the satellite was strictly deduced. Moreover, the concept of a projection curve, which projects the relative trajectory between the satellite and target in the calculation plane, was proposed. Thus, the visibility periods could be rapidly obtained by calculating the intersection points between the characteristic curve and the projection curve. The simulation results indicated that the presented method was efficient and accurate, and that the method was suitable for various kinds of satellite orbits and an arbitrary FOV of the sensor. Thus, the method was determined to be practical for engineering applications.