Autonomous mission planning of Earth observation satellite based on onboard cloud detection

Abstract

The imaging results of Earth Observation Satellite (EOS) with optical camera are usually affected by meteorological parameters, such as clouds that block the ground target and make the images useless. In order to achieve effective images, research on minimizing the impact of cloud coverage has been conducted for several years, and many methods have been proposed. Cloud detection and mission planning are two typical approaches to be considered. However, results of cloud detection are influenced by cloud status, such as cloud movement. Moreover, performance of mission planning algorithms is related to the computation environment, especially for those implemented onboard. By considering the above limitations, an autonomous mission planning method for the EOS based on onboard cloud detection is proposed in this paper. In order to detect the cloud coverage above the ground target, the cloud-detecting sensor is utilized before satellite taking images. The approach to analyze the cloud detection area of the ground target is introduced. Then, the effective observation window of the ground target is edited according to the cloud detection results. Moreover, the imaging plan of the ground target is re-planned based on the edited effective observation window accordingly. Mathematical simulations are implemented. And the result of simulations shows that the proposed method is able to update accurate effective observation window of the ground target, and the imaging plans are adjusted appropriately which increases the validity of images taken by the satellite.