02-19-2010, 02:12 AM
[quote name='Gagan' date='14 February 2010 - 06:30 PM' timestamp='1266151936' post='104208']
What orbit will the ELINT satellite use? A geostationary orbit to snoop 24x7? A LEO will be hampered by low availability and lack of sustenence over a target area.
A geostationary satellite will possibly be useful only if the other party is using satellite based comms, and the geo sat can tap onto the signal. But will a geostationary satellite because of its altitude be able to tap field communications or those between home base and major corps? I suspect that telephone and data which is transferred over satellite transponders will be fair game. This will need software which will sift out the key words that one is looking for etc etc.
Any thoughts guru log?
[/quote]
IMHO best ELINT orbit will be ~400 - 600 km that will allow picking up transmitting sources with ~ 2-10 watt EIRP. Yes that does require a constellation. But for Indian latitudes of concern, that is not too bad.
Yes GTO is way far.
What orbit will the ELINT satellite use? A geostationary orbit to snoop 24x7? A LEO will be hampered by low availability and lack of sustenence over a target area.
A geostationary satellite will possibly be useful only if the other party is using satellite based comms, and the geo sat can tap onto the signal. But will a geostationary satellite because of its altitude be able to tap field communications or those between home base and major corps? I suspect that telephone and data which is transferred over satellite transponders will be fair game. This will need software which will sift out the key words that one is looking for etc etc.
Any thoughts guru log?
[/quote]
IMHO best ELINT orbit will be ~400 - 600 km that will allow picking up transmitting sources with ~ 2-10 watt EIRP. Yes that does require a constellation. But for Indian latitudes of concern, that is not too bad.
Yes GTO is way far.