In-orbit measurement of S-band radio noise during the Flying Laptop satellite missionShow others and affiliations
2021 (English)In: Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress, IAC, International Astronautical Federation, IAF , 2021Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
The "Flying Laptop"small satellite was developed as a technology demonstration platform and is operated by the University of Stuttgart's Institute of Space Systems (Germany) and was launched on July 14th 2017 into a 600 km Sun synchronous Low Earth Orbit (LEO). For data exchange with ground stations, the satellite is equipped with the S-band transceivers of type SSTRX-1100. The receiver operates at a centre frequency of 2083.5 MHz and additionally provides various information about the received signals. A power indicator value is used to determine the incoming radio power on this frequency. Whereas this information normally is disregarded if the satellite is not communicating with a ground station, for this analysis, the power indication value has been used to derive the background noise temperature within 100 kHz bandwidth. For the period between February 2018 and January 2021, the incoming signal power was recorded every 20 s and later extended by the corresponding satellite position, based on on-board GPS measurements. Although the exact direction of the incoming signal cannot be determined due to the quasiomnidirectional antenna design, a statistical analysis has been performed for the large amount of measurement points for a 1° Longitude/Latitude grid. Finally, the background noise temperature is derived. Several maps show interferences and background noise, and variations over time. The presented results provide an important insight on the radio environment for a commonly used frequency for Earth-observation LEO satellites.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
International Astronautical Federation, IAF , 2021.
Keywords [en]
Earth Observation, Flying Laptop, Radio Noise, S band, Small Satellite, Antennas, Earth (planet), Electronic data interchange, Observatories, Orbits, Radio transceivers, Satellite ground stations, Background noise, Earth observations, Ground stations, In-orbit, Noise temperature, Orbit measurements, Small-satellite, Laptop computers
National Category
Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-316213Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85127536433OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-316213DiVA, id: diva2:1686763
Conference
28th IAA Symposium on Small Satellite Missions 2021 at the 72nd International Astronautical Congress, IAC 2021, 25 October 2021 through 29 October 2021
Note
QC 20220811
2022-08-112022-08-112022-08-11Bibliographically approved