Optimization of Reconfigurable Satellite Constellations Using Simulated Annealing and Genetic Algorithm.

Agile Earth observation can be achieved with responsiveness in satellite launches, sensor pointing, or orbit reconfiguration. This study presents a framework for designing reconfigurable satellite constellations capable of both regular Earth observation and disaster monitoring. These observation modes are termed global observation mode and regional observation mode, constituting a reconfigurable satellite constellation (ReCon). Systems engineering approaches are employed to formulate this multidisciplinary problem of co-optimizing satellite design and orbits. Two heuristic methods, simulated annealing (SA) and genetic algorithm (GA), are widely used for discrete combinatorial problems and therefore used in this study to benchmark against a gradient-based method. Point-based SA performed similar or slightly better than the gradient-based method, whereas population-based GA outperformed the other two. The resultant ReCon satellite design is physically feasible and offers performance-to-cost(mass) superior to static constellations. Ongoing research on observation scheduling and constellation management will extend the ReCon applications to radar imaging and radio occultation beyond visible wavelengths and nearby spectrums.

Overview of metrics and their correlation patterns for multiple-metric topology analysis on heterogeneous graph ensembles.

This study is an overview of network topology metrics and a computational approach to analyzing graph topology via multiple-metric analysis on graph ensembles. The paper cautions against studying single metrics or combining disparate graph ensembles from different domains to extract global patterns. This is because there often exists considerable diversity among graphs that share any given topology metric, patterns vary depending on the underlying graph construction model, and many real data sets are not actual statistical ensembles. As real data examples, we present five airline ensembles, comprising temporal snapshots of networks of similar topology. Wikipedia language networks are shown as an example of a nontemporal ensemble. General patterns in metric correlations, as well as exceptions, are discussed by representing the data sets via hierarchically clustered correlation heat maps. Most topology metrics are not independent and their correlation patterns vary across ensembles. In general, density-related metrics and graph distance-based metrics cluster and the two groups are orthogonal to each other. Metrics based on degree-degree correlations have the highest variance across ensembles and cluster the different data sets on par with principal component analysis. Namely, the degree correlation, the s metric, their elasticities, and the rich club moments appear to be most useful in distinguishing topologies.