DEIMOS
Earth Observation Software
Orbit and Attitude Adapater Tool
 ESA
My Project

Earth Observation Software
Orbit and Attitude Adapter Tool (C++)
Code
Issue 1.5
Date 14/02/2025
  Name Function Signature
Prepared by: Davide Alessandro Gennaro Aiello Project Engineer  
Checked by: Davide Alessandro Gennaro Aiello Project Engineer  
Approved by: Davide Alessandro Gennaro Aiello Project Engineer  

DOCUMENT INFORMATION

Contract Data Classification
Contract Number: 15583/01/NL/GS Internal  
Public  
Contract Issuer: ESA / ESTEC Industry X
Confidential  
External Distribution
Name Organization Copies
     
Electronic handling
Document generator: Doxygen 1.8.12
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Document Status Log

Issue Change Description Date Approval
1.5 Fifth release
This library is linked to EOCFI version 4.28 		14/02/2025

 

ACRONYMS, NOMENCLATURE AND TERMINOLOGY

Acronyms

ANX Ascending Node Crossing
AOCS Attitude and Orbit Control Subsystem
EOCFI Earth Observation Customer Furnished Item
EOM End Of Mission
ESA European Space Agency
ESTEC European Space Technology and Research Centre
GPL GNU Public License
IERS International Earth Rotation Service
OSF Orbit Scenario File
SUM Software User Manual
TAI International Atomic Time
UTC Coordinated Universal Time
UT1 Universal Time UT1


Nomenclature

CFI A group of CFI functions, and related software and documentation. that will be distributed by ESA to the users as an independent unit
CFI function A single function within a CFI that can be called by the user
Library A software library containing all the CFI functions included within a CFI plus the supporting functions used by those CFI functions (transparently to the user)

APPLICABLE AND REFERENCE DOCUMENTS

Applicable Documents

Reference Documents

[RD 1] EOCFI documentation main page
[RD 2] “Earth Observation Mission CFI Software – Data Handling User Manual”, v4.28
[RD 3] Earth Observation Ground Segment File Format Standard
[RD 4]

Wikipedia: “Data Format Description Language"</td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://eop-cfi.esa.int/index.php/applications/dfdl4s">[RD 5]</a></td> <td>DFDL4S Project</td> </tr> </table> <hr> <h1>@anchor index_d <a>INTRODUCTION</a></h1> <h2>Purpose</h2> The Earth Observation Mission Software (EOCFI SW) is a set of multiplatform software libraries which are made available free of charge to any user involved in supporting the Earth Observation missions preparation and exploitation. The EOCFI SW is typically used in Ground Segment operational facilities and in tools developed by ESA and their partners for Earth Observation Missions. The EOCFI SW libraries provide functionalities for a wide range of high-level computations: orbit (e.g. interpolation, propagation using different models); attitude (e.g. interpolation, attitude law); target pointing (e.g. direct/inverse geo-location with DEM); geometric properties of calculated targets; instrument swath computation and zone intersection; zone/station visibility events; observation opportunities for instruments (time segments and coverage). Low level functions are also provided, for example to support for several file formats read/write; co-ordinates / time transformations. The main inputs to the above functions are related to the satellite state. This information can be originated from different sources i.e.: models (e.g. propagators) implemented within the EOCFI SW itself; simulations or dedicated services (e.g. POD); S/C telemetry. <img src="intro_1.jpg" alt="ESA" height="308" width="800">

Data required to initialise the satellite state is typically:

  • a list of position and velocity at given times (OSVs);
  • a list of attitude parameters at a given times (e.g. quaternions, roll-pitch-yaw angles).

Such inputs can be passed to EOCFI functions via dedicated data structures or files. The EOCFI SW supports several types of files (see [RD 2]) and, in particular, orbit and attitude files compliant with the EO GS File Format Standard (see [RD 3]). However, very often such inputs may be made available using formats that are not directly supported by the EOCFI SW. For example, downlinked OSVs and quaternions are received within Instrument Source Packets (ISPs) whose format is mission dependent. Normally, for each specific format, a dedicated decoder needs to be implemented. The Orbit Attitude adapter tool preforms the translation between formats. The Orbit Attitude adapter tool / API receives as input:

  • Data (i.e. files) containing orbit and attitude;
  • Optionally, data format description in e.g. DFDL language (DFDL is “a modeling language for describing general text and binary data in a standard way“, see [RD 4]);
  • A main configuration file that includes the required configuration parameters (for example the parser that, for the DFDL language is the DFDL4S parser, see[RD 5]). And generating as output OSV and quaternions/rpy as lists in memory structures or files that can be ingested by EOCFI functions.

The Orbit Attitude Adapter Tool

The Orbit Attitude Adapter tool consists in:

  • An executable program that can be called from a command prompt window.
  • A JAVA library (a jar file ) that can be used in a JAVA program.

The executable program allows parsing input data files using a predefined parser that is already implemented in the tool. The JAVA library allows parsing the input data files using either a predefined parser or a “CUSTOM” parser that has to be implemented by the user. The current version allows the following predefined parsers:

  • DFDL4S parser.

INSTALLATION

Requirements

Software requirements:

  • EOCFI libraries v4.28
  • Compiler and additional libraries required for the EOCFI libraries

Installation instructions

To install the library simply unzip the distribution archive for the proper platform (OS) (EO_ADAPTER-X.X-CPP-OS.zip) into an installation directory. The folder structure resultant of this action is as follows:

  • EO_ADAPTER: main folder containing the LICENSE and README files.
  • EO_ADAPTER/example: Ready-to-use example with a standalone Java program (including a script to compile and run).
  • EO_ADAPTER/files: It contains the schema and a templae for the configuration file.
  • EO_ADAPTER/lib: The EO Orbit and Attitude adapter library + required external libraries (cots).

USAGE GUIDE

In order to decode a data file using the C++ library, the user can create its own parser (CUSTOM). The configuration file has to specify that the the parser to be used is the “CUSTOM” one.

The custom parser has to be implemented with the following C++ classes:

  • A Class UserParser, that inherits the class AdpDefaultParser. This class has to override the abstract methods parseOrbit and parseAttitude. These methods are in charge of reading the data file and filling the output objects with the data.
    For an example of a custom parser, see the class MyParser in Example 1.
  • A Class UserParserConfiguration that inherits the class AdpParserConfiguration. This class overrides the method loadFromFile. This method reads the configuration file, that is inside the path: /Earth_Explorer_File/Data_Block/Orbit_Attitude_Adapter_Configuration/Input_Configuration/ Parser_Configuration If the parser does not need any parameter from configuration, the method could be empty.

For an example of a custom parser configuration, see the class MyParserConfiguration in Example 1.

Once the custom parser is defined, the following steps should be given:

  1. Import the tool package:
    include <EoOrbAttAdapter.h>;
    EoOrbAttAdapter
    Interface used to parser the user files to CFI orbit/attitude files.
    Definition EoOrbAttAdapter.h:47
  2. Set the adapter main configuration with a file:
    2.1. Create the custom parser configuration
    UserParserConfiguration parserConfig;
    2.2. Create the custom parser and set the configuration
    UserParser myTextParser;
    myTextParser.setParserConfiguration(&parserConfig);
    2.3. Create the adapter and set parser and configuration with an input file:
    EoOrbAttAdapter myAdapter;
    myAdapter.setParser(&myTextParser);
    myAdapter.setMainConfiguration("./adp_configuration_file.xml");
    EoOrbAttAdapter::setMainConfiguration
    void setMainConfiguration(string configurationFile)
    Set the configuration with the input file name.
    EoOrbAttAdapter::setParser
    void setParser(AdpDefaultParser *inputParser)
    Set the parser to be used by the method "parse" in next calls.
  3. Parse the data files. The data file can be given as an input parameter or if it is not specified, the data file will be the given in the AdpMainConfiguration object. Note that several data files can be parsed so that all data will be joined together to be returned afterwards as a single file:
    myAdapter.parse(); // parse the file in the AdpMainConfiguration object
    EoOrbAttAdapter::parse
    void parse(const string dataFile)
    Execute the parser for the input data file.
    or
    myAdapter.parse(inputDataFile_1);
    myAdapter.parse(inputDataFile_2);
    myAdapter.parse(inputDataFile_3);
    …
  4. Get the orbit/attitude data and/or write the files to disk.
    OrbitFile myOrbitFile = myAdapter.getOrbitData();
    AttFile myAttFile = myAdapter.getAttitudeData();
    myAdapter.writeOrbitDataToFile("./output_orbit_file.xml");
    myAdapter.writeAttitudeDataToFile("./output_att_file.xml");
    EoOrbAttAdapter::getOrbitData
    void getOrbitData(OrbitFile &orbitFileData)
    Get Orbit data file.
    EoOrbAttAdapter::writeAttitudeDataToFile
    string writeAttitudeDataToFile()
    Write attitude data to attitude File (filename will be taken from Main Configuration File)
    EoOrbAttAdapter::getAttitudeData
    void getAttitudeData(AttFile &attitudeFileData)
    Get Attitude data file.
    EoOrbAttAdapter::writeOrbitDataToFile
    string writeOrbitDataToFile()
    Write OSVs to Orbit File (filename will be taken from Main Configuration File)
    if the filename is not provided in the writing methods, the file name is taken from the AdpMainConfiguration object. If the file name is not yet in the configuration, then an automatic name is given following the file format standard.

For an example of a predefined parser see Example 1.

Examples

An example is provided in installation_folder/examples/example_1

Example 1

This example consists in parsing a text file using a parser implemented by the user (Custom Parser). It is implemented in three classes:

  • CustomAdapterExample: contains the main program where the input text file is parsed and written to disk as an EOCFI orbit file.
  • MyParser: it implements a custom parser consisting in reading a text file with the orbital state vectors organised in lines. For running the example:
  • MyParserConfiguration: it contains the configuration for MyParser. It implements the method loadFromFile that reads a parameter from the configuration file.

More details about the implementation of the parser can be seen in the source code files. For instructions to compile and run the example, see the README file provided in the example directory.

CONFIGURATION FILE DESCRIPTION

Operations of the adapter are controlled by a main configuration file. This configuration file is compliant with Earth Observation file format standard. The following defines the sections enclosed in the Data Block relevant to the adapter configuration (i.e. header information is omitted).

<Data_Block type="xml">
<Orbit_Attitude_Adapter_Configuration>
<Input_Configuration>
<Default_Values>...</Default_Values>
<Parser_Configuration type=”DFDL4S” version=”1.3”>...</Parser_Configuration>
<Common>...</Common>
</Input_Configuration>
<Output_Configuration>
<Orbit>...</Orbit>
<Attitude>...</Attitude>
<Common>...</Common>
</Output_Configuration>
</Orbit_Attitude_Adapter_Configuration>
</Data_Block>

The file is composed by a node named Orbit_Attitude_Adapter_Configuration that contains Input_Configuration and Output_Configuration nodes:

Input Configuration

The <Input_Configuration> tag contains the following data:

  • Default Values: contains the tag Input_Data_Filename, that defines a default filename for the input data file. This file name is used only in case that the user did not provide explicitly a data file name in the tool inputs.

    <Default_Values>
    <Input_Data_Filename>...</Input_Data_Filename>
    </Default_Values>

  • Parser Configuration: contains specific data for the parser configuration. In general the parser configuration tag has the following structure:

    <Parser_Configuration type=”...” version=”...”>
    <Schema_Filename>...</Schema_Filename>
    <Orbit>...</Orbit>
    <Attitude>...</Attitude>
    </Parser_Configuration>

    The content of the tags <Orbit> and <Attitude> are different depending on parser to be used. For the custom parser, it can be filled with tags chosen by the users to their needs. For the predefined parsers (as for the DFDL4S, not provided for C++ library) the data structure is fixed (see the following subsections). For the custom parser, the reading of the tags inside <Orbit> and <Attitude> has to be implemented by the user. For this, the user has to create a class that implements the interface for AdpParserConfiguration. This interface contains a method (loadFromFile) where the <Parser_Configuration> can be read.

  • Common: This section contains:
    • The Model section: it can be used to specify the model used by EOCFI computations. Only the DEFAULT model is supported;
    • The Time_correlations section is used to define the relation amongst UTC, TAI, UT1, GPS. The method used depends on the type attribute:
      • FILE: the file defined in Time_correlations_file tag will be used.
      • FIXED_CORRELATIONS: the fields UTC_UT1, UTC_TAI, UTC_GPS will be used (e.g. UTC_UT1 = UTC time – UT1 time in seconds).
      • NONE: UTC_UT1 will be set to 0 and UTC_TAI / UTC_GPS to the values known by the tool.
<Common>
<Model type=”...”\>
<Time_Correlations type="...">
<Time_Correlations_File>...</Time_Correlations_File>
<Default_Values>
<UTC_UT1 unit="s">...</UTC_UT1>
<UTC_TAI unit="s">...</UTC_TAI>
<UTC_GPS unit="s">...</UTC_GPS>
</Default_Values>
<Time_Correlations>
</Common>

DFDL4S Parser configuration (not available for C++ library)

As described above, the parser configuration tag contains three sections: the <Schema_Filename>, the <Orbit> and the <Attitude>, being the <Orbit> and the <Attitude> the specifics parts. For the DFDL4S are as follows:

<Parser_Configuration type=”DFDL4S” version=”1.4”>
<Schema_Filename>...</Schema_Filename>
<Orbit status=”enabled”>...</Orbit>
<Mapping type="OSV">
<Time_Reference>...</Time_Reference>
<Time>...</Time>
<Reference_Frame>...</Reference_Frame>
<X correction_factor="..">...</X>
<Y correction_factor="..">...</Y>
<Z correction_factor="..">...</Z>
<VX correction_factor="..">...</VX>
<VY correction_factor="..">...</VY>
<VZ correction_factor="..">...</VZ>
<Orbit_number default="true">...</Orbit_number>
<Quality default="true">...</Quality>
<Default_Values>
<Quality>...</Quality>
<Orbit_Number type="OSF">
<OSF_Filename>...</OSF_Filename>
</Orbit_Mumber>
</Default_Values>
</Mapping>
</Orbit>
<Attitude status=”enabled”>
<Mapping type="Quaternions">
<Time_Reference>..</Time_Reference>
<Time>...</Time>
<Reference_Frame>...</Reference_Frame>
<Q1 correction_factor="..">...</Q1>
<Q2 correction_factor="..">...</Q2>
<Q3 correction_factor="..">...</Q3>
<Q4 correction_factor="..">...</Q4>
</Mapping>
<Axes_Mapping>
<X>...</X>
<Y>...</Y>
<Z>...</Z>
</Axes_Mapping>
</Attitude>
</Parser_Configuration >

The Orbit section in the input configuration contains:

  • Attribute status: it can be “enabled” or “disabled”. When it is disabled, the orbit data will not be parsed.
  • The Mapping section: it defines the correspondence between items defining an orbit and elements in the DFDL4S schema. The type of mapping is defined by the type attribute (currently only OSV is allowed). The elements are described as a path from the root node. In particular:
    • Time_Reference: either TAI, UTC, UT1 or N/A; It is the time reference for the read time;
    • Time: the OSV epoch;
    • Reference_Frame: Reference frame of the OSV (BAR_MEAN_2000, HEL_MEAN_2000, GEO_MEAN_2000, MEAN_DATE, TRUE_DATE, EARTH_FIXED, BAR_MEAN_1950, QUASI_MEAN_DATE, PSE_TRUE_DATE, PSEUDO_EARTH_FIXED);
    • X, Y, Z: position. The correction_factor attribute defines a correction to be applied to the data in order to have the position consistent to EOCFI conventions (i.e. expressed in meters);
    • VX, VY, VZ: position. The correction_factor attribute defines a correction to be applied to the data in order to have the velocity consistent to EOCFI conventions (i.e. expressed in meters/sec);
    • Orbit_Number: Orbit number of the OSV. It contains the attribute default(=true or false).When default is true, the orbit number is not read from the file with the path but computed with an OSF specified below, in the Default_Values section.
    • Quality: quality value of the OSV; It contains the attribute default(=true or false).When default is true, the quality is not read from the path specified, it will have the value specified below, in the Default_Values section.
    • Default_Values: this section is used when the attribute default is set to true. It contains:
      • A default value of Orbit_Number (if its attribute type is set to “OSF” (currently the only value allowed), the Orbit number will be calculated using an Orbit Scenario File).
      • A default value for Quality; All OSV will have the same quality value.

The Attitude section has a structure similar to the Orbit section:

  • Attribute status: it can be “enabled” or “disabled”. When it is disabled, the attitude data will not be parsed.
  • The Mapping section: it defines the correspondence between items defining an attitude and elements in the DFDL4S schema. The type of mapping is defined by the type attribute, it could be “Quaternions” or “Angles”. For Quaternions:
    • Time_Reference: either TAI, UTC, UT1 or N/A; It is the time reference for the read time;
    • Time: the quaternion epoch;
    • Reference_Frame: Reference frame that is the origin frame for the rotation represented by the quaternions (BAR_MEAN_2000, HEL_MEAN_2000, GEO_MEAN_2000, MEAN_DATE, TRUE_DATE, EARTH_FIXED, BAR_MEAN_1950, QUASI_MEAN_DATE, PSE_TRUE_DATE, PSEUDO_EARTH_FIXED);
    • Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4: Path for the Quaternions elements. Quaternions numbering follows the EOCFI conventions (i.e. Q4 is the real component).
    For Angles:
    • Time_Reference, Time and Reference_Frame: as defined for the quaternions.
    • Rotation_Angle_1, Rotation_Angle_2, Rotation_Angle_3: Path for the rotation angle elements.
  • Axis_Mapping: Attitude data represent a transformation from two co-ordinate systems, for example GM2000 to satellite attitude frame. Axes of this attitude frame are not necessarily defined according to EOCFI conventions. The Axes_Mapping section provides the correspondence between co-ordinate system axes in EOCFI conventions and input data. For example: <X>Y_positive</X> means that the EOCFI X axos os the Y positive axis in the data convention.

Output Configuration

The <Output_Configuration> tag has the following tags (see example below):

  • Orbit: contains the configuration data required for the output orbit file.
  • Attitude: contains the configuration data required for the output attitude file.
  • Common: Contains the tag <Satellite_Id> with the satellite/mission name.

The <Orbit> and <Attitude> tags are have a similar structure. The content is as follows:

  • Attribute Type: it can be:
    • EOCFI_FILE: the output is written to a EOCFI compliant file (currently this is the only value allowed).
  • Default_Filename: this is the filename used in case no filename is provided via the adapter interface. If the Default_Filename field is empty and no output file is specified via the adapter interface, the file name will be generated as per File Format Standard.
  • Time_Reference: Default Time reference. (Allowed values: TAI, UTC, UT1, N/A).
  • Reference_Frame: For the orbit file, it is the reference frame of the state vectors. For the attitude file, it is the reference frame for the source inertial frame. (Allowed values: BAR_MEAN_2000, HEL_MEAN_2000, GEO_MEAN_2000, MEAN_DATE, TRUE_DATE, EARTH_FIXED, BAR_MEAN_1950, QUASI_MEAN_DATE, PSE_TRUE_DATE, PSEUDO_EARTH_FIXED)
  • Target_Frame (only for Attitude): Attitude target frame (Allowed values: Sat_Nominal_Attitude, Sat_Attitude, Instr_Attitude). Header_Configuration defines the header fields as defined by the File Format Standard that cannot be generated automatically by the adapter:
    • Notes
    • File_Class
    • File_Type
    • File_Version
    • Source/System
<Output_Configuration>
<Orbit type=”EO_FILE”>
<Default_Filename>...</Default_Filename>
<Time_Reference>...</Time_Reference>
<Reference_Frame>...</Reference_Frame>
<Header_Configuration>
<Notes>...</Notes>
<Mission>...</Mission>
<File_Class>...</File_Class>
<File_Type>...</File_Type>
<File_Version>...</File_Version>
<Source>
<System>...</System>
</Source>
</Header_Configuration>
</Orbit>
<Attitude type=”EO_FILE”>
<Default_Filename>...</Default_Filename>
<Time_Reference>...</Time_Reference>
<Reference_Frame>...</Reference_Frame>
<Target_Frame>...</Target_Frame>
<Header_Configuration>
<Notes>...</Notes>
<Mission>...</Mission>
<File_Class>...</File_Class>
<File_Type>...</File_Type>
<File_Version>...</File_Version>
<Source>
<System>...</System>
</Source>
</Header_Configuration>
</Attitude>
<Common>
<Satellite_Id>...<Satellite_Id>
</Common>
<Output_Configuration>
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