Satellite Constellation Image Acquisition Problem: A Case Study

This chapter deals with the image acquisition scheduling of Earth observing satellites that revolve around the Earth in specific orbits and take images of prescribed areas requested by the clients. Often a satellite cannot acquire the images of a requested area in a single pass and it is necessary to divide the area into multiple strips each of which can be acquired in one satellite pass. Each satellite might have several image acquisition opportunities for each strip as the satellites can take images using different incidence angles. Then the Satellite Image Acquisition Scheduling Problem (SIASP) is to select the opportunities to acquire as many images as possible, without repetition, within a planning horizon while considering the image priorities and energy constraints. The proposed SIASP model employs a piecewise linear objective function to favor completion of an image acquisition request over partial acquisition of many requests. Extensive experimental study has been carried out using realistic randomly generated instances based on the forecasted statistics provided by MDA, Richmond, Canada. These experiments are intended as a preliminary investigation of the image acquisition scheduling for the Canadian RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM), a constellation of three satellites to be launched in 2018.