Q-Band LEO Earth Observation Data Downlink: Radiowave Propagation and System Performance

Earth Exploration Satellite Service (EESS) systems gather data about the Earth and its natural phenomena. Frequency bands traditionally employed by high-rate telemetry to download data from the satellite to the ground station, such as the X band (8 GHz), have become crowded. Higher frequency bands allow increasing the downlink throughput, as required by current advanced, multi-frequency sensors onboard the spacecraft (S/C). Some systems are already using or planning to use K-band (26 GHz) frequencies. The next band under consideration that can offer an increase in data volume return is the Q band (40 GHz). This paper studies the radiowave propagation aspects and the end-to-end system performance of Q-band Earth observation (EO) data downlink systems. Using standard ITU-R propagation prediction models and state-of-the-art technology specifications, simulation results are given in terms of obtained data return. Different orbit altitudes, satellite platform classes, ground station locations, antenna diameters and transmission types are considered.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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