Research on earth observing satellite segmenting and scheduling problem for area targets

The mission of an Earth Observing Satellite (EOS) is to acquire images of specified areas on the Earth surface, in response to observation requests from customers for strategic, environmental, commercial, agricultural, and civil analysis and research. A target imaged can have one out of two shapes: a spot and a large polygonal area. A spot can be covered by a single scene of satellite sensor, while a polygonal area may require cutting-up into several contiguous strips to be completely imaged. Because of the orbit restriction, satellite can only view target during specific windows of opportunity when flying over the target. Furthermore, the satellite can only be tasked during such access time windows. Hence a scheduling method of satellite observing tasks has to be taken into account for utilizing satellite sensor efficiently. This paper intends to solve a specific segmenting and scheduling problem for area targets, which concerned with an optical observing satellite equipped with line array CCD sensor. In the paper, based on the analysis of characters of satellite sensor and observed area target, a new method of segmenting area target is given. And on the basis of segmenting results of area target, a scheduling model for multi area targets is proposed. In the paper end, experimental results and analysis are also presented.