Range of satellite elevation by Skydel

Hi All,

Could you please advise us the range of satellite elevation? We expected it is in the range from 0 to pi/2 radian but in one of our simulation experiment by Skydel with code as below,
el_az = sim.call(GetElevationAzimuthForSV(“GPS”, svId))
el_az_func = el_az.elevationAzimuth()
el = el_az_func[‘Elevation’]

We obtained negative el, around - 0.0117 rad.

In our scenarios, the pseudo offset is computed as

pseu_off = 2hmath.sin(el)

The negative offset then triggered the error when the following function was called

sim.call(SetMultipathForSV(“L1CA”, svId, 0, pseu_off, 0, 0, 1, id))

Thanks,
Phu

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Phu,
It might depend on the altitude of the vehicle. If the vehicle is flying at a significant altitude then satellites could legitimately be located below the local horizon of the vehicle.
Eamonn

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Hi Eamonn,

Thank you very much for your kind response. In my experiment, the vehicle is at Fixed location with altitude 1km. Not sure if there is a chance the satellites below the horizon of the vehicle.

Best Regards,
Phu

Phu,
At at altitude of 1,000m and an earth radius of 6,363,564m, I calculated the local horizon to be a distance of approximately 112,810m away. That gave an angle below the local horizon of 0.00886 radians. Your angle of 0.0117 radians is a little larger so that doesn’t fully explain your result, although it does show that negative elevation angles are possible.
Eamonn

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Hi Eamonn,

Thank you very much for the helpful explanation.

Best Regards,
Phu

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