720 Chap.

19 / Satellite Communications

19.10 Antenna Look Angles

To maximize transmission and reception, the direction of maximum gain of
the earth station antenna, referred to as the antenna boresight, must point
directly at the satellite. To align the antenna in this way, two angles must be
known. These are the azimuth, or angle measured from the true north, and
the elevation, or angle measured up from the local horizontal plane, as shown
in Fig. 19.10.1.
~
Satellite

I
I
I
I
I
I
w
I
I
I
I

:S N
I /

--- --
I /
I / /
I /

:,:'"::/ ------
- --- -- -- --
:::: Horizontal plane
at earth station

Figure 19.10.1 Angles of azimuth Az, and elevation EI, measured

with reference to the local horizontal plane and true north.

The azimuth and elevation angles are usually referred to as the look
angles. In addition to the look angles, it is often necessary to know the range
or distance from the earth station to the satellite. The earth's constants
needed in these calculations are

Mean radius: R = 6378 km (19.10.1)

Radius of geostationary orbit: agso = 42164 km (19.10.2)

In addition to these constants, the other pieces of information needed to

determine the look angles and the range are

Satellite longitude, <l>s

Earth station longitude, <l>E
Earth station latitude, 'liE

The conventions used in the calculations are that east longitudes are
positive numbers and west longitudes are negative numbers (measured from
the Greenwich meridian). Latitudes are positive measured north and nega-
tive measured south from the equator. Certain rules known as Napier's rules,
which apply to spherical trigonometry, must be used in these calculations.
Figure 19.10.2(a) shows the situation. SS is the subsatellite point (which
must lie on the equator for a geostationary satellite), and ES is the earth sta-
tion, which for clarity is shown in the southern hemisphere. A property of
spherical triangles is that all the dimensions including the sides are in angu-
lar measure. Angle a is measured from the north pole to the subsatellite
19.10 / Antenna Look Angles 721

I!~
I.
ilii
I;"
,in
It"l
I
Ilil
i il
ii'
l
Iii
Ii l
Iil ,
I
i
' 11',
I"1,

~j
II

II'
111'
II .
ill,

II~,,.
I~".1"
I

(a)
II

90 + E£o

A d s
b

(b) (c)

Figure 19.10.2 (a) Geometry used to calculate look angles and

range for a geostationary satellite at S. (b) Spherical quadrantal tri-
angle obtained from (a). (c) Plane triangle obtained from (a).
722 Chap. 19 / Satellite Communications

point, and since the subsatellite is on the equator, a = 90°. Because one of the
sides is a right angle, the spherical triangle is referred to as a quadanin!
spherical triangle.
Angle B is the difference in longitude between the earth station and sub-
satellite longitudes. Keeping in mind the sign conventions referred to above,
angle B is given by

B = ~E - ~s (19.10.3

Also kee~ing in mind that southern latitudes are assigned negative val-
ues, the angle c is given by

c = 90° - AE (19.10.4J

For example, if AE = 30°8, then c = 120°

Knowing angles Band c, angle A can be found by the application of cer-
tain of Napier's rules. For the quadrantal triangle these result in A being
obtained from

tan A = -tan IBI (19.10.5)

sin AE

The azimuth can be determined once angle A is known. Four situations

must be considered; these are shown in Fig. 19.10.3. For these situations, the
azimuth is given by

Figure 19.10.3(a): AE< 0 and B<O, Az =A (19.10.6)

Figure 19.10.3(b): AE < 0 and B > 0, Az = 360° - A (19.10.7)

Figure 19.10.3 (c): AE> 0 and B < 0, Az = 180° + A (19.10.8)

Figure 19.10.3(d): AE> 0 and B > 0, Az = 180°- A (19.10.9)

These equations do not take into account the special case when the earth sta-
tion is on the equator, and determining the look angles for this situation is
left as an exercise for the reader.
To find the range and elevation, it is first necessary to find the side
(angle) b of the quadrantal triangle. Another of Napier's rules can be used to
show that

cos b = cos AEcos B (19.10.10)

Attention can now be transferred to the plane triangle, Fig. 19.10.3(c).

This includes the radius of the earth at the given latitude of the earth station.
It will be noted that the earth's radius does not come into the calculations for
azimuth. The shape of the earth is more closely approximated as an oblate
spheroid rather than a perfect sphere, for which the radius is a function of
latitude and the surface represents mean sea level. The assumption of a per-
fectly spherical earth and ignoring earth station altitude introduces about a
 W'I

:1

,ill

19.10 / Antenna Look Angles 723 r :

II
,I

,I
N N "'~

II

ES

~
(a) (b)

N N

(e) (d)

Figure 19.10.3 Azimuth angles for four possible situations: (a)

earth station in the southern hemisphere, west of the sub satellite
point; (b) earth station in the southern hemisphere, east of the sub-
satellite point; (c) earth station in the northern hemisphere, west of
the sub satellite point; (d) earth station in the northern hemisphere,
east of the subsatellite point.

tenth of a degree error in angle of elevation, and a few km at most in a range

of about 40km. For our purposes the assumption of a spherical earth and
ignoring earth station altitude is quite adequate. The mean radius is taken as:

R = 6371 km (19.10.11)

Application of the cosine rule to the plane triangle gives the range d as

d = JR2 + a~so - 2Ragso cos b (19.10.12)

The elevation can now be determined from application of the sine rule for
plane triangles. This yields .

agso
cos EI = - sin b (19.10.13)
d

These computations are illustrated in the following example, worked out in

Mathcad.