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Angle Calculations

The document summarizes how to calculate solar and satellite angles for GridSat-B1 files. Solar angles depend on location and time, and can be calculated from the hour angle, solar zenith angle, and solar azimuth angle formulas provided. Satellite angles are more complex as they depend on the satellite's orbital characteristics and location, and are calculated from the beta angle, view zenith angle, and azimuth angle formulas given in the document. Assumptions made in the calculations include treating Earth as spherical and using the nominal geostationary orbital radius.

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Feyisa Gerba
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39 views

Angle Calculations

The document summarizes how to calculate solar and satellite angles for GridSat-B1 files. Solar angles depend on location and time, and can be calculated from the hour angle, solar zenith angle, and solar azimuth angle formulas provided. Satellite angles are more complex as they depend on the satellite's orbital characteristics and location, and are calculated from the beta angle, view zenith angle, and azimuth angle formulas given in the document. Assumptions made in the calculations include treating Earth as spherical and using the nominal geostationary orbital radius.

Uploaded by

Feyisa Gerba
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Calculating zenith and azimuth angles for GridSat-B1

The following is a summary of how solar and satellite angles can be calculated for GridSat-B1 files.

Solar Angles
Solar angles are solely dependent upon the location (latitude and longitude) and time. Thus, it is
straightforward to calculate solar angles.

The hour angle (h) is defined as the longitude of the sun, which is calculated as:

𝑡 − 12
ℎ=−
12

where t is the frational GMT time (e.g., for hh:mm:ss then t = hh + mm/60. + ss/3600.)

Solar zenith angle (θo) is calculated as:

cos 𝜃𝑜 = sin 𝜑 sin 𝛿 + cos 𝜑 cos 𝛿 cos ℎ

Where δ is the solar declination angle and varies from -23.45 deg to +23.45 deg through the year and
can be approximated as:

2𝜋𝐽 20𝜋
𝛿 = −23.45 cos � + �
365 365

Where J is the day of the year.

The solar azimuth angle (φo) is calculated as:

sin(ℎ − 𝜆)
sin 𝜙𝑜 =
sin 𝛽𝑜

Where:

cos 𝛽𝑜 = cos(𝜑) cos(𝜆 − 𝜆𝑠 )

Note: An assumption is made that the time is constant throughout the image. However, there will be
some variation as to when each scan started and ended. A full disk scan takes about 30 minutes to
complete and most files were started near the optimal time. A better approximation would be to use
the start time of each satellite (which can be determined from the B1 filename) to better estimate the
actual image time.
Satellite Angles
Satellite angles are more cumbersome to calculate. Converse to solar angles, they are largely
independent of time. Instead, they depend on satellite orbital characteristics and location on Earth
(latitude and longitude).

Satellite angles are based on the beta angle, which is the angle from the center of the Earth subtended
by the satellite latitude and longitude (ϕs, λs) and point in question on the Earth (ϕ, λ). The values for (ϕs,
λs) are stored in the netCDF variables satlat and satlon, respectively.

cos 𝛽 = cos(𝜑 − 𝜑𝑠 ) cos(𝜆 − 𝜆𝑠 )

When the satellite has a small inclination angle, this can be approximated as:

cos 𝛽 = cos(𝜑) cos(𝜆 − 𝜆𝑠 )

View zenith angle is calculated as:

42164 sin 𝛽
sin 𝜃 =
�1.8084 × 109 − 5.3725 × 108 cos 𝛽

Azimuth angle (φ) is calculated as:

sin(𝜆𝑠 − 𝜆)
sin 𝜙 =
sin 𝛽

Assumptions and Notes:

• Spherical Earth is assumed, so angles are less accurate at the limb


• Nominal (circular) geostationary orbital radius (42164. Km above the Equator) is assumed
• View zenith angle calculations should be checked for limits: square roots > 0 and arcsine input
limit of [-1,+1], prior to calculation, otherwise an error will occur

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