The next version of SATSOFT has now been released: SATSOFT 3.6 is out and available to users and customers.

This new version of SATSOFT brings several new highly requested features, together with numerous enhancements. Some highlights of the new functionality available in SATSOFT 3.6:

• Polygon Performance Analysis. Statistically derived quantities from antenna beams over coverage areas
• Antenna Noise Temperature. New functionality to compute the antenna noise temperature
• Performance Table Analysis. New statistical analysis tools available for Performance Tables
• Multibeam Antenna Export to TICRA Tools. Export complete multibeam setups and coverages for further analysis and optimisation in TICRA Tools

The new release thus brings several new statistical tools for extracting mission coverage data as well as an improved interface between SATSOFT and TICRA Tools. Find more details on all highlighted features below.

With an active Technical Support and Maintenance (TSM) contract you may download SATSOFT 3.6 on the TICRA support site. Here, you also find the release note with all details on new features, enhancements, and bug fixes.

If you would like to renew your TSM agreement, please contact us.

Polygon Performance Analysis

With SATSOFT 3.6, it is now possible to extract statistical quantities and distributions for coverage regions, for field quantities such as directivity, cross-polar discrimination (XPD), axial ratio, and others. This new feature is called Polygon Performance Analysis and is available for any antenna beam in a SATSOFT project.

Polygon Performance Analysis has been requested by several customers and will allow users to extract key coverage metrics, thus making mission planning and analysis within SATSOFT more efficient and powerful.

This tool, as an example, allows users to calculate the fraction of a polygon with directivity above or below a certain level, or, conversely, percentiles of directivity within the coverage. The user may also extract plots of cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) and complementary cumulative distribution functions (CCDFs) for field quantities within the coverage.

Antenna Noise Temperature

Users may now obtain the antenna noise temperature for any component or composite beam in SATSOFT. By specifying the ground, water, and space brightness temperatures, a background temperature map is generated, and the antenna noise temperature for the chosen beam may be computed. Optionally, the contribution to the noise temperature from the Sun may also be included. Additionally, computed temperature maps may readily be exported for further analysis in TICRA Tools.

Moreover, in Performance Tables, the antenna gain-to-noise temperature (G/T) may now be computed as its own dedicated metric, which incorporates the antenna noise temperature calculation, and can be included into satellite link budgets.

This new functionality thus adds new capabilities for SATSOFT users to analyse satellite missions and communication links.

Performance Table Analysis

With the new Performance Table Analysis, users may derive statistical metrics of any field quantity (such as directivity, XPD, slope, and others) for stations and cities in performance tables. As an example, the user may compute which percentage of cities in the coverage region have a directivity above or below a certain level.

This new functionality will, as with Polygon Performance Analysis, give users detailed information on coverage performance, and thus make mission planning and analysis more accurate and efficient.

Multibeam Antenna Export to TICRA Tools

With the release of SATSOFT 3.6, it is now possible to export full setups of multibeam antennas, based on the Multi-Feed Reflector antenna model, for further analysis and optimisation using POS in TICRA Tools.

This implies that users of both SATSOFT and POS in TICRA Tools may reap the benefits of both tools: Setup of coverages, missions, and stations in SATSOFT, while advanced antenna analysis and optimisation are performed directly in TICRA Tools with the outputs from SATSOFT.