[amsat-bb] Re: satellite los footprints

[Paul Williamson]

On Mar 25, 2013, at 8:15 AM, Joseph Armbruster <josepharmbruster at gmail.com> wrote:
> I can not decide how to implement ground footprints with my google earth satellite tracker.

InstantTrack uses a spherical Earth model for ground footprints.

> option 3 : use a digital elevation model and an ellipsoidal model to cull-out regions that are not visible due to geographic features and project an irregularly shaped polygon downwards towards the footprint
> 

I believe that local terrain is dominant over any large-scale terrain effect you'd be able to see on a footprint map. It would be worth modeling for AOS/LOS or mutual visibility purposes.

73  -Paul
kb5mu at amsat.org