Effects of satellite attitude control error and flying velocity on satellite laser altimeter measurement precision

A geometry model were established to analyse the effects on measurement precision by satellite attitude control error and flying velocity for both normal incidence of single pulse and non-normal incidence of multi-beam, the mathematical expression of distance measurement error was deduced, at the same time, numerical calculation was made here. In this study, the requirement for satellite control error was obtained to meet the measurement precision of 1m when the flight time is 1/300 s. Moreover, qualitative discussion was made about the flying velocity's effect on measurement precision. The results show that attitude control error has a direct impact on the distance measurement precision of spaceborne laser altimeter, but with the different azimuth of non-normal incidence beam, the effects on distance measurement precision by pitching error and rolling error will vary a lot; if velocity direction has common component with the propagation direction of laser pulses, the flying velocity must be taken into consideration when high precision measurement results is wanted.