Toby Peterken - SATROclub Extended Research Placement - Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.

Toby Peterken of Esher College is currently completing a SATROclub Extended Work Placement at Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL). There is a GNSS Reflectometry Experiment on Tech Demo Sat, and data from this is being downloaded regularly. Toby's project is to post process this data, as guided by the team at SSTL, to try and find relations to geographical features on the ground. This could include streams, ice or other features. The project also involves processing the positioning data and relationship to previous ground testing. Here's what Toby had to say about his experience so far...

Week One

"When I first got here I was shown around the buildings, the different departments, the laboratories and the manufacturing area.

 I was then given a task to be able to make the data easy to visualise. I had to edit a Matlab script so that it automatically generates KML (Google earth) files that display the data from the satellite as coloured paths on the earth’s surface. So that first day was spent trying to learn KML. The second day I started on the Matlab program and got to control parts of the satellite. 

The next two days were spent finishing off/fixing the code. Now it displays signal strength, antenna direction and signal strength compared with antenna direction on Google earth. It automatically loads all the files in each folder and makes the path transparent if the value is too low. I also created a script that draws graphs of other data if needed. 

All of this will be so that it is easy to see if signal strength has correlation with landforms."

Week Two

"As the track data was processed by my program, I was asked to rewrite part of the satellite control program, so that the camera timings were automated. It took 3 days to get it so that the timings didn't clash with other collections and so that it always turned off over the same point over the Earth. It was used to set satellite timings and if it continues to work, could be used permanently.

I then started to look at the data. I realised there was too much information so I created a script to load only information in a particular area and time interval. Doing so I was able to look at isolated regions and look for patterns in the data. So far it seems to be sensitive to water."

SATRO wishes Toby the best of luck for the future, and hopes that he enjoys the rest of his placement with SSTL!