Seeing the World through an Antenna's Eye: Reception Quality Visualization Using Incomplete Technical Signal Information

TL;DR

This work addresses the challenge of interpreting incomplete, direction-dependent signal information collected by ground stations during satellite reception. It introduces a homogeneous-diffusion inpainting approach to map directional measurements onto a 2D azimuth–elevation plane, filling missing data by solving a Laplace equation with Dirichlet data on known samples ($\Delta u = 0$) and carefully designed boundary conditions ($\Omega$, $\Omega_K$, $u|_{\Omega_K}=f$). The authors demonstrate the method on year-long S-band DSCOVR data, constructing a high-resolution image plane and producing inpainted visuals that reveal ground-based obstructions and sky features, improving all-round reception-quality assessment. The technique offers a practical tool for ground-station development and motivates future work in coordinate-system choices, sensor fusion, and anisotropic inpainting to better reflect data structure.

Abstract

We come up with a novel application for image analysis methods in the context of direction dependent signal characteristics. For this purpose, we describe an inpainting approach adding benefit to technical signal information which are typically only used for monitoring and control purposes in ground station operations. Recalling the theoretical properties of the employed inpainting technique and appropriate modeling allow us to demonstrate the usefulness of our approach for satellite data reception quality assessment. In our application, we show the advantages of inpainting products over raw data as well as the rich potential of the visualization of technical signal information.

Figures (5)

• Figure 1: An excerpt of technical signal information from a Landsat 9 satellite contact in September 2023. Top: Antenna pointing. Bottom: Measured Signal level.
• Figure 2: Top: Image ($3600 \times 901$ pixels) showing trajectories of the DSCOVR satellite and the corresponding signal level information from the antenna's reception perspective. Bottom: Result of homogeneous diffusion inpainting after 6412 iterations using $\varepsilon = 10^{-8}$.
• Figure 3: Top: Enlarged section of the inpainted signal level information for small elevation $\theta$ in the morning hours. Bottom: Corresponding camera picture of the ground station from the antenna's point of view.
• Figure 4: Top: Section of the inpainted signal level information for small elevation $\theta$ in the evening. Bottom: Camera picture of the corresponding region from the antenna's point of view.
• Figure 5: Highlighted drops in the signal level for an as yet unknown reason.