MAGDAS PEN was established on 19th September 2019 as one of the MAGDAS observatory arrays located at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) (5.15°, 100.50°). The main objective of the MAGDAS project is to monitor global electromagnetic and the ambient plasma density in the geospace environment. This installation has contributed to a better understanding of the Sun-Earth coupling system. This paper presents

Leveraging the COVID-19 India-wide lockdown situation, the present study attempts to quantify the reduction in the ambient fine particulate matter concentrations during the lockdown (compared with that of the pre-lockdown period), owing to the highly reduced specific anthropogenic activities and thereby pollutant emissions. The study was conducted over Bengaluru (India), using PM2.5 (mass concentration

In recent times, origami-inspired deployable structures have received significant interest from the research community as a major area of research in the fields of science and technology. This paper deals with the geometry and the deformation behavior of deployable cones based on the four-fold line origami concept. First, a novel geometric design algorithm is presented to develop axially foldable conical

With the rapid growth of the number of Earth observation satellite (EOS) supporting critical applications, it is required to improve the security techniques to protect the sensitive data and images during the transmission between the satellites and the ground stations. This paper introduces a new satellite image encryption algorithm based on the Linear Feedback Shift Register (LFSR) generator, SHA

We aim to provide satellite operators and researchers with an efficient means for evaluating and mitigating collision risk during the design process of mega-constellations. We first introduce a novel algorithm for conjunction prediction that relies on large-scale numerical simulations and uses a sequence of filters to greatly reduce its computational expense. We then use this brute-force algorithm

A way to improve the accuracy of the three-body problem model is taking into account the eccentricity of primary attractors. Elliptic Restricted Three-Body Problem (ER3BP) is a model for studying spacecraft trajectory within the three-body problem such that the orbital eccentricity of primaries is reflected in it. As the principal cause of perturbation in the employed dynamical model, the primaries

This study analyzed the occurrence of ionospheric irregularities over South Korea and Japan (mid-latitudes) during the years 2010 - 2015. The irregularities were quantified using the rate of change of total electron content (TEC) index (ROTI), which detects irregularities with scale sizes in the range of 400m – 2.5km. The ROTI threshold for an ionospheric irregularity to have occurred was set as 0

The present study aimed to propose translational and rotational control of a chaser spacecraft in the close vicinity docking phase with a target subjected to external disturbances. For this purpose, two sliding mode controls (SMC) are developed to coordinate the relative position and attitude of two spacecraft. The chaser is guided to the tumbling target by the relative position control, approaching

For spacecraft hovering in low orbit, a high precision spacecraft relative dynamics model without any simplification and considering J2 perturbation is established in this paper. Using the derived model, open-loop control and closed-loop control are proposed respectively. Gauss's variation equations and the coordinate transformation method are combined to deal with the relative J2 perturbation between

Slope correction is important to improve the accuracy of satellite radar elevation measurements by mitigating the slope-induced error (SE), especially over uneven ground surfaces. Although several slope correction methods have been proposed, guidance in the form of stepwise algorithm on how to implement these methods in processing radar altimetric data at the coding level, and the differences among

As the lighter-than-air (LTA) flight vehicle, the stratospheric airship is a desirable platform to provide communication and surveillance services. During the ascent from sea-level to the mission altitude, the volume of the lifting gas may change significantly, which will result in the change of the center-of-buoyancy (CB). A general calculation method is developed to specify CB for the stratospheric

In this study, a two-step control methodology is developed for energy-optimal reconfiguration of satellites in formation in the presence of uncertainties or external disturbances. First, based on a linear deterministic system model, an optimal control law is analytically determined such that a satellite maneuvers from an initial state to a final state relative to another satellite. The structure of

Since realising the idea that a man-made object can be intentionally placed into the Earth’s orbit, almost 10,000 satellites have been launched for multiple scientific, commercial and military purposes. These activities produce a huge amount of junk comprised not only of defunct artificial objects that no longer serve a useful purpose, but various collisions, explosions and leaks have produced millions

The three-body recombination of oxygen atoms O + O + M → O2(el) + M is the dominant process of oxygen excitation in the Earth’s nightglow at altitudes of 85–110 km. The rate coefficient of this reaction, as well as the quantum yields of electronically excited products (O2(el) in the electronic states: 5πg, A3Σu+, A′3Δu, c1Σu+, b1Σg+, a1Δg, X3Σg-) depend on the gas kinetic temperature. In addition to

Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) is a tracking technique based on a one-way ground to space Doppler link. For Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, DORIS shows a robust capability in terms of data coverage and availability, due to a wide and well-distributed ground network, where data are made available by the International Doris Service (IDS). However, systematic

The eastern part of the Rich area consists of the massive Paleozoic and Meso-Cenozoic cover formations that present the geodynamic development of the study area, where is characterized by various carbonate facies of Jurassic age. The geographical characteristic of the study area leaves the zone difficult to map by conventional methods. The objective of this work focuses on the mapping of the constituent

Shorelines constantly vary due to natural, urbanization and anthropogenic effects such as global warming, population growth, and environmental pollution. Sustainable monitoring of coastal changes is vital in terms of coastal resource management, environmental preservation and planning. Publicly available Landsat 8 OLI (Operational Land Manager) images provide accurate, reliable, temporal and up-to-date

This paper presents an improved new method with differential evolution and the cubic spline approach is proposed to retrieve sea level height based on GNSS SNR observations from a single geodetic receiver. Considering the B-spline function is unstable at the beginning or end, and the feature that B-spline functions do not pass through nodes may introduce errors. Thus, the cubic spline is applied to

Lake water height is a key variable in water cycle and climate change studies, which is achievable using satellite altimetry constellation. A method based on data processing of altimetry from several satellites has been developed to interpolate mean lake surface (MLS) over a set of 22 big lakes distributed on the Earth. It has been applied on nadir radar altimeters in Low Resolution Mode (LRM: Jason-3

Mean night-time peak power, Doppler shift and Doppler width of spread Doppler clutter (SDC) received by a high frequency backscatter radar located at Alice Springs, Australia from 2000 to 2018 is presented as a function of azimuth, sunspot number, time of year and frequency. The sampled region covers 90 degrees from West to North and includes the northern and southern equatorial anomalies. SDC peak

Within a quantum hydrodynamic model and using the reductive perturbation technique, the nonlinear ion-acoustic wave (IAW) excitations due to a moving charged object in an electron-pair-ion quantum plasma are studied both analytically and numerically. In such quantum plasmas we have derived forced Korteweg-de Vries (fKdV) type equation for finite amplitude nonlinear IAWs. The effect of relevant plasma

As an important error source in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning and ionospheric modeling, the differential code biases (DCB) need to be estimated accurately, e.g., the regional Quasi-Zenith satellite system (QZSS). In this paper, the DCB of QZSS is estimated by adopting the global ionospheric modeling method based on QZSS/GPS combined observations from Multi-GNSS experiment (MGEX)

This work presents, for the first time, the analysis of the occurrence of ionospheric irregularities during geomagnetic storms at Tucumán, Argentina, a low latitude station in the Southern American longitudinal sector (26.9°S, 294.6°E; magnetic latitude 15.5°S) near the southern crest of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA). Three geomagnetic storms occurred on May 27, 2017 (a month of low occurrence

This paper presents a case study when due to the descending additional U-shaped trace on vertical incidence ionograms, increased critical frequency stabilizes. This corresponds to an ionospheric disturbance that moves toward the ionosonde and then stays overhead. Within a 2D model, traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) are superimposed on the inverted background ionosphere. So ray tracing is used

Guidepost-based navigation system is a novel autonomous orbit determination method for the GEO satellite. The system is achieved by using the camera imaging function to obtain the guidepost images and the GNSS signal receiver to obtain the pseudoranges between the GEO and the navigation satellites. Due to the high altitude of GEO satellite and the time-varying sunlight condition in the space environment

In this study, an adaptive neural network control approach is proposed to achieve accurate and robust control of nonlinear systems with unknown dynamics, wherein the neural network is innovatively used to learn the inverse problem of system dynamics with guaranteed convergence. This study focuses on the following three contributions. First, the considered system is transformed into a multi-integrator

The main challenge in real-time precise point positioning (PPP) is that the data outages or large time lags in receiving precise orbit and clock corrections greatly degrade the continuity and real-time performance of PPP positioning. To solve this problem, instead of directly predicting orbit and clock corrections in previous researches, this paper presents an alternative approach of generating combined

A near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) is regarded as a potential orbit for a future deep space station that can effectively support sustainable crewed lunar exploration missions. In this paper, the L2 southern NRHOs are selected as the research object, and a direct transfer trajectory from an NRHO to a low lunar orbit (LLO) is designed and analyzed. First, based on the circular restricted three-body

As private companies and government space agencies begin to seriously consider the task of active space debris removal, it is becoming increasingly more important to determine the highest priority objects to deorbit. This work sets forth an approach for prioritization of space debris through the utilization of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making methodologies and fuzzy logic, as well as both quantitative

In the presence of unknown disturbances and model parameter uncertainties, this paper develop a nonlinear backstepping sliding-mode controller (BSMC) for trajectory tracking control of a stratospheric airship using a disturbance-observer (DO). Compared with the conventional sliding mode surface (SMS) constructed by a linear combination of the errors, the new SMS manifold is selected as the last back-step

This paper presents the mission design for a CubeSat-based active debris removal approach intended for transferring sizable debris objects from low-Earth orbit to a deorbit altitude of 100 km. The mission consists of a mothership spacecraft that carries and deploys several debris-removing nanosatellites, called Deorbiter CubeSats. Each Deorbiter is designed based on the utilization of an eight-unit

In this paper, on-off SDRE control approach is presented for spacecraft formation flying control around sun-earth L2 libration point. Orbits around libration points are very good targets for many space missions mainly because of efficient fuel consumption. Furthermore, less propellant usage can be achieved by considering optimal control approaches in spacecraft formation flying control design. Among

Space object material identification method based on Tucker decomposition is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. Space target generally has a low spatial resolution because of the limitation in detection distance. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) technology can capture the image from visible light to shortwave infrared continuously while providing the spatial and spectral information of the target

High resolution airborne magnetic data acquired between 2005 and 2010 were used to determine depth to shallow and deep magnetic sources in some parts of Southeastern Nigeria. Various depth estimation methods such as standard Euler deconvolution (SED), source parameter imaging (SPI), spectral depth analysis (SDA) and two dimensional (2-D) forward modeling were applied. Results obtained from SED, SPI

The cross-covariances among local sensor estimates are usually unknown or can’t be accurately known in multi-sensor systems. The Covariance Intersection (CI), Convex Combination (CC), Largest Ellipsoid (LE) and Ellipsoidal Intersection (EI) algorithms have been developed for the estimate fusion with unknown cross-covariances. In this contribution, we reveal a strong commonality in principle among CI

Space manipulator is considered as one of the most promising technologies for future space activities owing to its important role in various on-orbit serving missions. In this paper, a novel adaptive fuzzy neural network (FNN) control scheme is proposed for the trajectory tracking control of an attitude-controlled free-flying space manipulator in the presence of output constraints and input nonlinearities

This paper proposes a procedure for managing the risk of reentering space objects and risk assessment methodologies used for the process. The proposed procedure comprises three phases encompassing the whole reentry stages of space objects. Mathematical models for assessing the impact risk of the reentering space objects by utilizing the information available during different risk management phases

This paper researches on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) ocean wind retrieval approach, evaluates the method of Damped Newton VARiational method (DNVAR) and the direct method (DIRECT) using two years’ real SAR data and different background winds. Experiments are carried out using SENTINEL-1 SAR information as observation, National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoy data as in-situ data, Global Forecast System

This paper presents a neural-aided Guidance, Navigation & Control algorithm for reconfiguration of distributed space systems. The guidance algorithm is based on Artificial Potential Fields (APF) in the Relative Orbital Elements (ROE) space. Since the relative orbit determination measurements are typically referred to the Cartesian metrics (e.g. range or range rate), a linear mapping between the set

Multi-reflected echoes (MREs) and satellite traces (STs) are referred in literature as ionogram signatures of Travelling Ionospheric Disturbances (TIDs) which is a phenomenon that apparently drives spread F development mainly at nighttime mid-latitude ionosphere. A long-term statistical study has been undertaken to investigate the morphological aspect of these signatures over the lower midlatitude

The Nile River Basin (NRB) is facing extreme demand for its water resources due to an alarming increase in population and the changing climate. The NRB is not compatible with ground-based in-situ observations owing to its large basin area size and limited hydrological data access from basin countries. Thus, it lends itself to remotely sensed approaches with high spatial resolution and extended temporal

The tropospheric delay is one of many error sources that affect the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning solutions. The widely used troposphere models assume a homogeneous atmosphere so that only the zenith delay needs to be determined and is mapped through an elevation-dependent mapping function. This procedure is to reduce the computational burden and keep the positioning model full-rank

Capturing large space debris with complex rotational motion is extremely challenging. A de-tumbling phase before capturing may be necessary to reduce the risk of collision with debris. This paper proposes a new noncontact de-tumbling method using a two-satellite electromagnetic formation, in which two small electromagnetic satellites, each having a high-temperature superconducting coil, generate control

Ionospheric response during the annular solar eclipse of June 21, 2020, has been examined in terms of the Total Electron Content (TEC) obtained from six Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers positioned in the Chinese-Taiwanese region. We have shown TEC variation from satellites designated by PRNs (Pseudo-Random Noise code) 2, 6, and 19. PRN wise TEC trend was observed to depend upon satellite-pass

A shape of the satellite’s solar sail membrane is essential for unloading angular momentum in the three-axis stabilized attitude control system because the three-dimensional solar sail can receive solar radiation pressure from arbitrary directions. In this paper, the objective is the shape optimization of a three-dimensional membrane-structured solar sail using the angular momentum unloading strategy

Two guidance schemes (i) fuel-optimal (ii) energy-optimal to realize soft landing at a desired location on the moon are developed using the optimal control laws. The optimal control laws are obtained by solving a two-point boundary value problem formulated based on Pontryagin’s principle. The guidance laws, adapted from the optimal control laws, are obtained as a function of unknown co-state variables

The attention to the periodic orbit in the Earth-Moon restricted three-body system continues to grow due to its special environment and locations. This research investigates the feasibility of constructing fuel-optimal single and multiple impulse transfers between unstable periodic orbits at L1 and L2 points. Invariant manifolds, which could provide the appropriate initial trajectories for optimization

This paper describes an innovative method for processing nadir altimeter data acquired in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mode, enhancing the system performances over open ocean. Similarly to the current SAR data processing scheme, the so-called LR-RMC (Low Resolution with Range Migration Correction) method, originally designed by Phalippou and Demeester [2011], includes Doppler beam forming, Doppler

This article proposes a new method for uncalibrated phase delay (UPD) estimation to improve the accuracy of precise point positioning (PPP), which uses only observation station data. This means that the station used to generate the UPDs is the same station to which they are applied. First, dual-frequency observation equations based on a raw PPP model are developed. Then, the UPDs are calculated from

During the satellite’s operations, simulation tools perform an important role in ensuring the space mission success. In this sense, the models implemented in the context of an operational satellite simulator that enables analysis of health status and maintenance during operations shall reflect the current satellite behavior with high fidelity. Moreover, it is complicated to obtain all analytical models

CubeSats offer a flexible and low-cost option to increase the scientific and technological return of small-body exploration missions. ESA’s Hera mission, the European component of the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) international collaboration, plans on deploying two CubeSats in the proximity of binary system 65803 Didymos, after arrival in 2027. In this work, we discuss the feasibility

All empirical models of the ionosphere electron density profile rely, among other parameters, on the efficient description of the thickness of the F2 layer that controls the profile shape. Considering the trend towards data assimilation in such models to give near real time 3D specification of the electron density, the efficiency of such description becomes particularly important. This paper discusses

The radiation effects in electronic parts are called single-event effects, which are deemed to be critical for space missions. This paper presents the Single Event Upsets that were observed in an onboard memory device of the Low Earth Orbit “Flying Laptop” satellite mission during its in-orbit operation. The Single Event Upsets were carefully mapped on the satellite orbital space itself and their root

In this study downward longwave (LW) atmospheric radiation data for the period of 2014–2020 were used to search for short-term periodicities using fast Fourier transform (FFT). Several local peaks in the power spectrum density were found and established. The time series exhibits a series of significant peaks (exceeding the 95% confidence limit), such as at 273 days, 227 days, 200 days, 178 days, 157 days

An intense Storm Enhancement Density (SED) event with the magnetic storm occurred on 17–24 March 2015 has been investigated. The morphological character of the SED during different phase of the magnetic storm is examined and compared with the non-storm time. Three intensity indexes, i.e., “general” SED index, “heavy” SED index and “severe” SED index, are defined to represent the intensity of SED respectively

The problem of attitude takeover control of spacecraft by using cellular satellites with limited communication, actuator faults and input saturation is investigated. In order to lighten the communication burden of cellular satellites, an event-triggered control strategy is adopted. The filtered attitude information needs to be transmitted only when the defined measurement error reaches the event-triggered

Short Message Communication (SMC) is a featured service of BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS). After its successful deployment in 2003, Regional Short Message Communication (RSMC) service has been continuously serving China and its neighboring countries and regions, especially in life safety scenarios. In this paper, the architecture of the Global Short Message Communication (GSMC) system is

Using the ground-based multi instruments observations in Hainan and Southeast Asia, as well as space-based observations, the long lasting events of ionospheric irregularities occurred in the equatorial region of East Asia on the night of March 31, 2014 are studied. Concurrent observations at Hainan station indicate that ionospheric irregularities measured with different instruments showed distinct

This paper is devoted to developing a closed-loop vibration suppression controller for a satellite with large flexible appendages based on component synthesis vibration suppression (CSVS) method. The dynamics model of a flexible satellite is firstly established by using the Newton–Euler methodology, and the dynamics model of the flywheel is also developed. A novel CSVS method is presented based on

With a growing number of resident space objects (RSOs), the facilities for near-Earth space surveillance have to cope with increasing workload. It also applies to low-cost small optical surveillance facilities which may present regional, national and global networks. Improved methods of planning and scheduling optical telescopes are required to use these instruments efficiently. Today, optical observations