Repeat-Orbit Swath Coverage

Estimate nominal repeat-orbit swath coverage against a supplied reference surface area.

Description

Nominal repeat-orbit coverage adds equal per-track areas.

Nominal repeat-orbit coverage adds equal per-track areas. Percentage uses the supplied reference surface area.^[1]

Estimate nominal repeat-orbit swath coverage against a supplied reference surface area.

When to use Repeat-Orbit Swath Coverage

Use this tool to estimate nominal repeat-orbit swath coverage against a supplied reference surface area.

Prepare the optical measurements, geometry, fitted coefficients or caller-selected thresholds requested. Confirm wavelength, radius/diameter, pulse-width, angle and unit conventions before running the calculation.

How to use Repeat-Orbit Swath Coverage and understand its results

Prepare the optical measurements, geometry, fitted coefficients or caller-selected thresholds requested. Confirm wavelength, radius/diameter, pulse-width, angle and unit conventions before running the calculation.
Enter groundTracksPerRepeat, swathAreaPerTrackSquareMeters, referenceSurfaceAreaSquareMeters using the field table and calculation rules, then run the tool.
Read coveredAreaSquareMeters, coveragePercent. The explanation below defines the units, signs, ordering and any flags or placeholder values.
If the tool reports an input issue, correct the values and run it again. Apply the stated assumptions when interpreting a successfully returned result.

Input field	Meaning	Value type; see rules below	Requirement
groundTracksPerRepeat	Ground tracks per repeat	integer; minimum: 1	Required
swathAreaPerTrackSquareMeters	Swath area per track (m²)	number; minimum: 0	Required
referenceSurfaceAreaSquareMeters	Reference surface area (m²)	number; minimum: 0	Required

Enter positive integer track count, nonnegative track area and positive reference area. Return aggregate area and percentage, which can exceed 100.

area=tracks×areaPerTrack; coverage%=100area/reference

Units, indexing, boundary conditions and exceptional cases are defined in the calculation rules above.

Output field	Meaning	Value type
coveredAreaSquareMeters	Nominal covered area (m²)	number; minimum: 0
coveragePercent	Nominal repeat-cycle coverage (%)	number; minimum: 0

json

{
  "input": {
    "groundTracksPerRepeat": 10,
    "swathAreaPerTrackSquareMeters": 1000000,
    "referenceSurfaceAreaSquareMeters": 510000000000000
  },
  "output": {
    "coveredAreaSquareMeters": 10000000,
    "coveragePercent": 0.00000196078431372549
  }
}

Limitations and assumptions

Track overlaps, missed regions, orbit geometry and geographic masks are not removed.

Numeric inputs must be finite. Follow the calculation-specific rules for overflow, underflow and exceptional cases. Missing required fields, extra fields, wrong value types and violations of the calculation rules are input errors.

Alternative or Complementary methods

Use Flash-Lidar Frame Coverage: Calculate flash-lidar points per frame and angular pixel pitch. For a complementary task, use Lidar Point Density: Estimate lidar point density after a caller-supplied swath-overlap adjustment.

References

Repeat-Orbit Swath Coverage — tool.io

Similar or alternative tools

Flash-Lidar Frame Coverage
Calculate flash-lidar points per frame and angular pixel pitch.
Lidar Point Density
Estimate lidar point density after a caller-supplied swath-overlap adjustment.