Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) Object Detection By Spaceborne Netted Radar

Spaceborne radar detects space objects more closely,and it is free to radar netting position.Therefore,spaceborne radar will be a significant sensor for space object detection and tracking in the coming future.Low-earth-orbit(LEO)satellites move faster with shorter cycle compared with medium and high orbit satellites.The observation area of the LEO satellite changes fast,and the relative position and velocity between LEO satellite and space objects to be detected changes more dramatically.So the observation data has highly dynamic characteristics.Methods of constellation design are presented in this paper to shorte the observation time intervals for space objects and resulte in higher coverage ratio of observation,thus the approximate real-time electromagnetic scattering characteristics of space objects acquisition can be achieved.Methods of constellation design are presented in detail by mean of the analysis on satellite orbital parameters,types of constellation coverage and other parameters related to constellation design.Simulations on LEO objects detection using spaceborne netted radars are implemented under the constraint of rational operating parameters of space-based radars.Walker constellation and non-Walker constellation with different parameter configuration are compared in terms of observation time gap for four satellites as an example,followed by the statistical results of observation time intervals for more than one hundred objects.The simulation results show that the observation time intervals for LEO objects can be shortened effectively by means of spaceborne netted radars,resulting in higher coverage ratio of observation.