| 摘要 |
A method in accordance with this invention for operating a satellite communications system of a type that has a plurality of earth orbiting satellites, at least one terrestrial user terminal, and at least one terrestrial gateway, includes steps of determining a location and an azimuthal orientation of the user terminal; determining locations of one or more satellites co-visible to the user terminal and to the gateway; determining a signal quality of paths to each satellite co-visible with the gateway; displaying a representation to an operator of the user terminal, the representation depicting at least the orientation of the user terminal, the determined locations of the one or more satellites, and the determined signal qualities for satellites that are in use and those that are not in use; and changing the location of the user terminal in response to the displayed representation. Also, an unattended user terminal located a desired geographical position can generate a map of the sky over a period of time, the map indicating satellite availability at the desired position. The map can subsequently be used by the user terminal and/or the gateway to schedule communications, thereby conserving one or both of system capacity and user terminal battery power.
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