000169446 001__ 169446 000169446 005__ 20260227133540.0 000169446 0247_ $$2doi$$a10.1109/JSTARS.2019.2896196 000169446 0248_ $$2sideral$$a148163 000169446 037__ $$aART-2019-148163 000169446 041__ $$aeng 000169446 100__ $$0(orcid)0000-0002-8507-4679$$aArnas, David$$uUniversidad de Zaragoza 000169446 245__ $$aFLEX: A Parametric Study of Its Tandem Formation With Sentinel-3 000169446 260__ $$c2019 000169446 5203_ $$aThe Fluorescence Explorer (FLEX) is an Earth observation mission currently in development by the European Space Agency to perform quantitative measurements of the solar induce vegetation fluorescence. As a core of the mission concept, FLEX is planned to be launched by the end of 2023 and shall fly in tandem with one of the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites, which is already in orbit. This situation will allow FLEX to benefit from the optical and thermal sensors of Sentinel-3 and provide an integrated package of measurements. This paper presents the preliminary parametric analysis on the along-track dynamic of the tandem flight formation between Sentinel-3 and FLEX. It includes the study of the maneuvering strategy for a master–slave scenario concept, where Sentinel-3 acts as the master of the formation, whereas FLEX is the slave. This control strategy is assessed in terms of safety for both satellites and performance, where it is of interest to maintain the along-track distance between satellites as bounded as possible. Numerical and analytical results of this paper are provided showing that the control strategy proposed is able to fulfill the mission requirements under the expected conditions while providing enough time for the control center to coordinate the orbital maneuvers of Sentinel-3 and FLEX. Additionally, and from the results obtained in this paper, it is concluded that the safest configuration for the mission is locating FLEX ahead of Sentinel-3. 000169446 540__ $$9info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess$$aAll rights reserved$$uhttp://www.europeana.eu/rights/rr-f/ 000169446 590__ $$a3.827$$b2019 000169446 591__ $$aGEOGRAPHY, PHYSICAL$$b8 / 50 = 0.16$$c2019$$dQ1$$eT1 000169446 591__ $$aENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC$$b59 / 265 = 0.223$$c2019$$dQ1$$eT1 000169446 591__ $$aIMAGING SCIENCE & PHOTOGRAPHIC TECHNOLOGY$$b8 / 27 = 0.296$$c2019$$dQ2$$eT1 000169446 591__ $$aREMOTE SENSING$$b11 / 30 = 0.367$$c2019$$dQ2$$eT2 000169446 592__ $$a1.48$$b2019 000169446 593__ $$aComputers in Earth Sciences$$c2019$$dQ1 000169446 593__ $$aAtmospheric Science$$c2019$$dQ1 000169446 655_4 $$ainfo:eu-repo/semantics/article$$vinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 000169446 700__ $$aJurado, Pedro 000169446 700__ $$aBarat, Itziar 000169446 700__ $$aDuesmann, Berthyl 000169446 700__ $$aBock, Ralf 000169446 7102_ $$12006$$2200$$aUniversidad de Zaragoza$$bDpto. Matemáticas$$cÁrea Didáctica Matemática 000169446 773__ $$g12, 7 (2019), 2447-2452$$pIEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing$$tIEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing$$x1939-1404 000169446 8564_ $$s2760455$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/169446/files/texto_completo.pdf$$yVersión publicada 000169446 8564_ $$s3539270$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/169446/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon$$xicon$$yVersión publicada 000169446 909CO $$ooai:zaguan.unizar.es:169446$$particulos$$pdriver 000169446 951__ $$a2026-02-27-12:35:50 000169446 980__ $$aARTICLE