Eclipse

R2026b

Eclipse analysis object belonging to satellite, ground station, or platform

Since R2023b

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    Description

    The Eclipse object defines an eclipse analysis object belonging to a Satellite, GroundStation, or Platform object. Use the Eclipse object to calculate the fraction of the solar disk that is visible from the satellite, ground station, or platform position.

    Creation

    Create an Eclipse object using the eclipse object function of GroundStation, Satellite, or Platform object.

    Properties

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    Eclipse model to calculate solar occultation as observed from the position of the parent asset, specified as one of these values:

    • dual-cone — Calculate a fraction of the solar disk eclipsed while assuming that the occulting bodies and the Sun are spherical.

    • cylindrical — Calculate a fraction of the solar disk eclipsed while assuming that:

      • The Sun is infinitely far from the occulting bodies and the satellite.

      • All rays of sunlight are parallel.

    Option to include occultation of the Sun by the Moon for Earth central body assets, specified as false or true. This property is visible when the CentralBody property of the parent asset equals "Earth". When CentralBody equals "Moon", this property is hidden and ignored.

    Since R2026b

    Option to include occultation of the Sun by the Earth for Moon central body assets, specified as false or true. This property is visible when the CentralBody property of the parent asset equals "Moon". When CentralBody equals "Earth", this property is hidden and ignored.

    Object Functions

    eclipseIntervalsCalculate intervals of solar occultation
    eclipsePercentageCalculate percentage of time when solar occultation occurs

    Examples

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    Open Live Script

    Add an eclipse analysis object to a satellite, sat, and ground station, gs, and calculate the eclipse intervals, intvls.

    Create a satellite scenario object, sc. 

    startTime = datetime(2023,4,20);
stopTime = startTime + days(1);
sampleTime = 10; % seconds
sc = satelliteScenario(startTime,stopTime,sampleTime);

    Add a ground station, gs, to the scenario, sc.

    gs = groundStation(sc, ...
    1.038102, ... % latitude, degrees
    135.980085);  % longitude, degrees

    Add a satellite, sat, to the scenario, sc. Set the orbit propagator as a two-body-keplerian.

    sat = satellite(sc, ...
    10000000, ... % semimajor axis, meters
    0, ...        % eccentricity
    0, ...        % inclination, degrees
    0, ...        % right ascension of ascending node, degrees
    0, ...        % argument of periapsis, degrees
    0, ...        % true anomaly, degrees
    OrbitPropagator="two-body-keplerian");

    Add the eclipse analysis object to the ground station, gs. Include the lunar eclipse in the analysis. By default, the eclipse model is for a dual-cone.

    eclGs = eclipse(gs,IncludeLunarEclipse=true)
    eclGs = 
  Eclipse with properties:

           EclipseModel: "dual-cone"
    IncludeLunarEclipse: 1

    Add the eclipse analysis object to the satellite, sat. Include the lunar eclipse in the analysis. By default, the eclipse model is for a dual-cone.

    eclSat = eclipse(sat,IncludeLunarEclipse=true)
    eclSat = 
  Eclipse with properties:

           EclipseModel: "dual-cone"
    IncludeLunarEclipse: 1

    Inspect the satellite and ground station object properties. Note that their Eclipse properties are nonempty, which indicates that the eclipse analyses have been added.

    Eclipse: [1x1 Aero.satellitescenario.Eclipse]

    sat
    sat = 
  Satellite with properties:

                  Name:  Satellite 2
                    ID:  2
           CentralBody:  Earth
    ImpulsiveManeuvers:  [0x4 timetable]
        ConicalSensors:  [1x0 matlabshared.satellitescenario.ConicalSensor]
               Gimbals:  [1x0 matlabshared.satellitescenario.Gimbal]
          Transmitters:  [1x0 satcom.satellitescenario.Transmitter]
             Receivers:  [1x0 satcom.satellitescenario.Receiver]
              Accesses:  [1x0 matlabshared.satellitescenario.Access]
               Eclipse:  [1x1 Aero.satellitescenario.Eclipse]
           GroundTrack:  [1x1 matlabshared.satellitescenario.GroundTrack]
                 Orbit:  [1x1 matlabshared.satellitescenario.Orbit]
        CoordinateAxes:  [1x1 matlabshared.satellitescenario.CoordinateAxes]
       OrbitPropagator:  two-body-keplerian
           MarkerColor:  [0.059 1 1]
            MarkerSize:  6
             ShowLabel:  true
        LabelFontColor:  [1 1 1]
         LabelFontSize:  15
         Visual3DModel:  
    Visual3DModelScale:  1


    gs
    gs = 
  GroundStation with properties:

                  Name:  Ground station 1
                    ID:  1
           CentralBody:  Earth
              Latitude:  1.0381 degrees
             Longitude:  135.98 degrees
              Altitude:  0 meters
    MaskElevationAngle:  0 degrees
      MaskAzimuthEdges:  [0 360]
        ConicalSensors:  [1x0 matlabshared.satellitescenario.ConicalSensor]
               Gimbals:  [1x0 matlabshared.satellitescenario.Gimbal]
          Transmitters:  [1x0 satcom.satellitescenario.Transmitter]
             Receivers:  [1x0 satcom.satellitescenario.Receiver]
              Accesses:  [1x0 matlabshared.satellitescenario.Access]
               Eclipse:  [1x1 Aero.satellitescenario.Eclipse]
        CoordinateAxes:  [1x1 matlabshared.satellitescenario.CoordinateAxes]
           MarkerColor:  [1 0.4118 0.1608]
            MarkerSize:  6
             ShowLabel:  true
        LabelFontColor:  [1 1 1]
         LabelFontSize:  15

    Calculate the eclipse intervals for both eclipse objects, specified as the vector [eclGs eclSat].

    intvls = eclipseIntervals(eclSat)
    intvls = 12×9 table
        Asset         EclipsingBody      IntervalNumber         StartTime                EndTime           Duration    MinimumEclipseStatus    StartOrbit    EndOrbit
    _____________    ________________    ______________    ____________________    ____________________    ________    ____________________    __________    ________

    "Satellite 2"    "Earth"                    1          20-Apr-2023 01:17:50    20-Apr-2023 01:53:10      2120                  0               1            1    
    "Satellite 2"    "Moon"                     2          20-Apr-2023 02:43:30    20-Apr-2023 02:56:40       790            0.87842               1            2    
    "Satellite 2"    "Earth"                    3          20-Apr-2023 04:03:50    20-Apr-2023 04:39:10      2120                  0               2            2    
    "Satellite 2"    "Moon"                     4          20-Apr-2023 05:53:50    20-Apr-2023 06:49:40      3350             0.1747               3            3    
    "Satellite 2"    "Earth and Moon"           5          20-Apr-2023 06:49:40    20-Apr-2023 06:51:20       100                  0               3            3    
    "Satellite 2"    "Earth"                    6          20-Apr-2023 06:51:20    20-Apr-2023 07:25:00      2020                  0               3            3    
    "Satellite 2"    "Earth"                    7          20-Apr-2023 09:35:40    20-Apr-2023 10:11:00      2120                  0               4            4    
    "Satellite 2"    "Earth"                    8          20-Apr-2023 12:21:30    20-Apr-2023 12:56:50      2120                  0               5            5    
    "Satellite 2"    "Earth"                    9          20-Apr-2023 15:07:30    20-Apr-2023 15:42:50      2120                  0               6            6    
    "Satellite 2"    "Earth"                   10          20-Apr-2023 17:53:20    20-Apr-2023 18:28:40      2120                  0               7            7    
    "Satellite 2"    "Earth"                   11          20-Apr-2023 20:39:20    20-Apr-2023 21:14:40      2120                  0               8            8    
    "Satellite 2"    "Earth"                   12          20-Apr-2023 23:25:10    21-Apr-2023 00:00:00      2090                  0               9            9

    Limitations

    • When the AutoSimulate property of the satellite scenario is false, you can call eclipse only when SimulationStatus is NotStarted. Otherwise, you must call the restart function to reset SimulationStatus to NotStarted. Calling restart removes the simulation data.

    • The function ignores:

      • Atmospheric refractions.

      • Sunlight transit time delays.

    • The function assumes Earth, Moon, and Sun possess spherical geometries, with radii equal to their equatorial radii.

    • When the value of EclipsingBody from the solar occultation interval table is Earth and Moon, the predicted value of MinimumEclipseStatus is lower than the actual value.

    Version History

    Introduced in R2023b

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    See Also

    Objects

    Functions

    External Websites