Measurement of the Horizon Elevation for satellite tracking antennas Located in Urban and Metropolitan Areas Combining Geographic and Electromagnetic Sensors

Resumen

In urban and metropolitan areas presence of nearby obstacles and signal interference sources surrounding tracking antenna locations reduces satellite communication times. In low orbit missions these obstructions are even more relevant due to a few minutes per satellite pass. In this scenario a best estimation of the antenna elevation mask in the mission frequency band is proposed to test the antenna design for a given site by applying mission simulation software before the installation stage. If needed, to improve efficiency in satellite tracking operations, mitigation techniques will be proposed either in the redesign or relocation of the antenna.
This paper describes a methodology for deriving the horizon elevation diagram, which includes a measurement setup when different data capturing sensors are used: geographic and electromagnetic. Application results which have contributed in the selection of the antenna location can be seen in the case study of the new CubeSat-LEO tracking antenna at Cal Poly University.