DESIGN AND SIMULATION OF A REAL-TIME MAPPING SATELLITE FOR 
THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA 
Abdulaziz I. Alobaida and Kurt Novak 
Military Institute of Surveying and Geographical Studies 
P.O. Box 89088, Riyadh 11682 
Saudi Arabia 
Tel.: ( ).; Fax: ( ) 
ABSTRACT 
The goal of this interdisciplinary research is to design a mapping 
and remote sensing satellite system (to be named SULTAN) for the 
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and its neighbouring regions and to 
prove its mapping feasibility by a simulation Study. It will be 
equipped with state-of-the-art remote sensing, positioning, and 
attitude determination technology that is either currently 
available or will be available in the near future. The satellite 
System should provide the users with spatial data capable of 
producing maps and map substitutes of scale 1/25,000 without the 
need for ground control. 
Two options are suggested and analyzed -- a system of one satellite 
or of two satellites. In the case of a one-satellite system, a 
threefold stereoscopic line scanner sensor will be investigated. 
The second mapping system consists of two satellites, both equipped 
in the above similar manner. The orbits of both satellites are 
similarly inclined and separated by about 2.6 degrees in the right 
ascension of their ascending nodes. These orbits were specifically 
chosen such that an area on the equator of the Earth would be 
covered by the vertically looking sensors of the first satellite 
and about 30 degrees, off the nadir, titled sensors on the second 
satellite. With this configuration, a specific scene can be 
covered by six images, three from each satellite. 
The orbits of the system will be. as low as possible, sun- 
synchronous, possibly minimum-drift orbits, nearly circular and 
polar. The positions of the satellites will be determined by on- 
board GPS receivers, while the sensors attitude will be determined 
by one or more stellar sensors. 
The general form of the collinearity equation is used in which a 
linear and higher order functions interpolate between orientation 
images to relate image coordinates, sensor parameters, and ground 
coordinates. 
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