An end-to-end pointing budget approach to planetary observing systems with application to EOS

Previously published error budgets have focused on spacecraft error sources for pointing error and have tended to include only spacecraft pointing rather than the ultimate geolocation of each pixel of dam onto a well-defined spot on the surface of the Earth. A systematic approach to geolocation error budgeting, including all contributors in the geolocation process is presented. Its structure allows simultaneous expression of the needs of instrument teams as well as spacecraft design teams. It allows explicit acknowledgement of approximations made for on-board control as well as the ultimate geolocation accuracy achievable after ground processing and exploits the commonality inherent in the on-board and post-processing error budgets. It also includes the uncontrolled and unmeasured spacecraft jitter. This approach can be used to investigate the mission-wide benefit of a variety of design choices, (such as on-board sensing and ground correction of measurements contrasted with on-board correction of measurements). Additionally, in light of increasing accuracy requirements as sensor resolution improves, numerous non-spacecraft contributors to geolocation error are quantified.