SATELLITE CONSTELLATION DESIGN FOR THE SOLVE MISSION INVESTIGATING DIURNAL CYCLES OF VEGETATION PHENOMENA

This paper discusses the problem of finding an optimal satellite constellation for the SOLVE (Satellites Observing Lakes and Vegetation Environments) Mission. A key requirement of this mission is a temporal resolution of several observations per day. A semi-analytical approach is proposed. After some analytical design steps which reduces the problem space to circular sun synchronous orbits, a genetic algorithm is used for finding all remaining orbital parameters. The result is an easy to use tool which allows to study cost impact from given science requirements enabling a good understanding of the relation between temporal, spatial resolution and cost.