Augmenting traditional spaceborne SAR sensors with additional receive-only satellites in close formation enhances the observation space, allowing for single-pass interferometry in along- and/or across-track with flexible baselines and the potential to build tomographic stacks with reduced temporal decorrelation properties. The feasibility of such add-ons is presently investigated by ESA and other national space agencies and for a variety of master satellites operating from X- to L-band. This paper presents a simulation framework for complete scenes dedicated specifically to the analysis of theadditional technical requirements imposed by the bistatic SAR imaging geometry with relatively large along-track separation of illuminating master/chief and the receive-only slaves/deputies. Index Terms—bistatic synthetic aperture radar, synchronisation.

Link to full length paper: https://elib.dlr.de/119476/1/IGARSS-Bistatic-Simulator-final.pdf

This paper develops  cluster control algorithms for the Satellite Swarm Sensor Network project,   for which the main aim is to enable disaggregation of space-based remote   sensing, imaging, and observation satellites. A methodological development of   orbit control algorithms is provided, supporting the various use cases of the   mission. Emphasis is given on outlining the algorithm’s structure, information flow, and implementation. The methodology presented herein   enables operation of multiple satellites in coordination to facilitate   disaggregation of space sensors and augmentation of data provided therefrom.

Link to full length   paper: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330091641_Cluster-Keeping_Algorithms_for_the_Satellite_Swarm_Sensor_Network_Project

The constantly   challenging requirements for orbit prediction have opened the need for better   onboard propagation tools. Runge-Kutta (RK) integrators have been widely used   for this purpose; however RK integrators are not symplectic, which means that   RK integrators may lead to incorrect global behavior and degraded accuracy.   Emanating from Deprit's radial intermediary, obtained by the elimination of   the parallax transformation, we present the development of symplectic   integrators of different orders for spacecraft orbit propagation. Through a   set of numerical simulations, it is shown that these integrators are more   accurate and substantially faster than Runge-Kutta-based methods. Moreover,   it is also shown that the proposed integrators are more accurate than   analytic propagation algorithms based on Deprit's radial intermediary   solution, and even other previously-developed symplectic integrators.

Link to full length   paper: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327961008_Symplectic_orbit_propagation_based_on_Deprit's_radial_intermediary

The long-time   technological trend towards ever-finer ground resolution in space-borne multispectral   data has opened the doors to finer levels of urban mapping and monitoring.   Single buildings and their features can nowadays be detected and mapped   starting from nadiral data; yet, despite a large body of research results, an   exhaustive solution to space-based building mapping is still to be found. In   this paper, we give our contribution by proposing a novel approach to the   extraction of rooftop shapes of buildings from very-high-resolution (VHR)   optical multi-spectral data. The approach is derived from existing work,   namely an automatic rooftop extraction method intended for aerial imagery.   Because of the very different nature of the data, it was necessary to   rearrange the reference method, modifying and adding new constraints,   applying both spectral and spatial conditions. This work was developed in the   framework of the EU H2020 Satellite Swarm Sensor Network (S3NET) project.

Link to full length   paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8518329