Deriving the satellite EDR taxonomy and observation requirement from TLE data

A satellite taxonomy approach was derived from the definition of the satellite energy dissipation rate (EDR) and the atmospheric drag perturbation formula. This approach can group satellites in several EDR bins based on the two-line element (TLE) data. Because it does not need to calculate the satellite's ballistic coefficient and atmospheric density model, this approach can provide results to within an accuracy of 1%. And the computational complexity of this approach is extremely small. Furthermore, an analytical algorithm for calculating the accuracy versus tracking-density curves of the planar orbit satellite was also proposed in this work based on the extended Kalman filter. The orbit determination accuracy of this algorithm was described through the position covariance matrix of the relative orbit. Simulation results indicate the validity of the EDR calculation approach of this algorithm. Finally, the accuracy versus tracking density curve, which indicated the observation requirement, and the corresponding analysis were provided. Simulation results show that the orbital propagation error is directly proportional to EDR when observations are spare, and that the phenomenon of observation saturation when observations are abundant.