Novel Service Opportunities Exploited via LEO Satellite Constellations

This research explores the expansion of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations beyond their traditional communication roles into multifunctional platforms for navigation, atmospheric sensing, and environmental monitoring. By analyzing the high signal-to-noise ratio and rapid geometry changes inherent in LEO orbits, the thesis demonstrates how these platforms can effectively augment existing Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) in challenged environments, specifically through Doppler-based positioning and enhanced geometric diversity. Beyond navigation, the study investigates the exploitation of orbital perturbations for passive environmental sampling and introduces a non-invasive diagnostic technique to monitor aerospace vehicle re-entry by analyzing signal disruption patterns. Additionally, the work evaluates the utility of LEO-based receivers for atmospheric profiling via radio occultation. Synthesized through a systems engineering framework, this research introduces that these diverse service opportunities can be integrated into a unified resource-efficient architecture .