The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 12, 2001
Filed:
Jul. 13, 1999
Donald D. Brand, Jr., Philomont, VA (US);
Jerome Joseph Kalke, Jr., Ashburn, VA (US);
Ronald Lee Kling, Jr., Warrenton, VA (US);
TASC, Inc., Reading, MA (US);
Abstract
The satellite coverage problem involves the determination of a given satellite's in-view and out-of-view times and durations for a given ground point. To perform global coverage, the planet is divided into an even grid in spherical coordinates. Assuming a minimum elevation from the ground to the satellite of interest, the satellite's ground footprint longitude width is determined analytically at a given latitude. Ignoring planetary triaxality, the footprint is assumed to be east-west symmetric. All grid points with the footprint satisfy line-of-sight geometric constraints. The process is repeated for every satellite at every time point, and coverage statistics are generated over the grid at the end.