Simulation of sunlight reflection characteristic of conical satellite antenna

Based on the theory of detecting satelli te, simulation model of detecting satellite with visible light was established. Relations of arbitrary parameters, such as the satellite orbit, the shape of satellite antenna and the location of observatory, with the observed magnitude of the conical satellite antenna were studied using MATLAB. The sunlight reflection of conical satellite antenna and the concept of the magnitude were introduced, and the method of how to judge the time when the satellite is in the earth's shadow area and in the observatory's blind zone were given. From the simulation results, the magnitude at any time and transformation of the magnitude with the change of time can be obtained. The simulation results show that the observation time with the same observation equipment on the ground is short for low earth orbit satellites, while be shorter for the conical antenna.