Uncertainty quantification of network availability for networks of optical ground stations

This paper analyzes differences in the availability of networks of optical ground stations computed using different methods and datasets, and quantifies the uncertainty of the results. For that purpose, we first review existing methods proposed in the literature, and then existing cloud coverage dat...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Del Portillo Barrios, Inigo, Sanchez Net, Marc, Cameron, Bruce Gregory, Crawley, Edward F
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Format: Article
Published: SPIE-Intl Soc Optical Eng 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/116578
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9438-9712
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8230-5155
Description
Summary:This paper analyzes differences in the availability of networks of optical ground stations computed using different methods and datasets, and quantifies the uncertainty of the results. For that purpose, we first review existing methods proposed in the literature, and then existing cloud coverage datasets, and we compare the results obtained using different methods and datasets for several scenarios. Finally, we propose a new probabilistic global cloud coverage model that aggregates values from existing datasets and quantifies the uncertainty in measuring cloud probability, and present a method to compute the availability of a network of multiple optical ground stations, along with the corresponding uncertainty.