Hello,
I would like to ask for a feature that is a combination of the AngularSeparationDetector and the ExtremumApproachDetector.
The ExtremumApproachDetector is very close to what I need, but instead of being relative to the closest approach, I would like to extract the minimum separation angle. Please note that the time of closest approach is not necessarily the same time as the time of smallest separation angle.
The use case is when tracking a satellite and getting interference from another satellite. The smallest separation angle is used in my calculation of the probability for interference. Right now, I have a workaround, but it is very costly calculation-wise (I loop through thousands of TLEs). I would very much like to have native Orekit functionality for this.
It can either be implemented as
- A modification to the ExtremumApproachDetector, where the user can set a property to select it to refer to distance (approach) or to separation angle.
- A modification to the AngularSeparationDetector, letting the user select to stop the propagation either when entering the proximity zone, or when at the minimum angular separation.
- A new class ExtremumAngularSeparationDetector, working similarly as ExtremumApproachDetector, but for the separation angle.
What do you think?
Thanks!