In this article, we propose an Earth conical shadow model predicting umbra and penumbra states for the low Earth orbiting satellite considering the spherical shape of the Earth. The model is described using the umbra and penumbra cone geometries of the Earth’s shadow and the geometrical equations of these conical shadow regions into a Sun centered frame. The proposed model is simulated for three polar Sun-synchronous Indian Remote Sensing satellites: Cartosat-2A, Resourcesat-2 and Oceansat-2. The proposed model compares well with the existing spherical Earth conical shadow models such as those given by Vallado (2013), Wertz (2002), Hubaux et al. (2012), and Srivastava et al. (2013, 2014). An assessment is carried out of the existing Earth conical shadow models with Systems Tool Kit (STK), a high fidelity commercial software package of Analytic Graphic Inc., and the real time telemetry data. Satellite position vector in the ECI frame Equatorial radius of the Earth Radius of photosphere of the Sun Distance between the Sun and Earth Earth’s shadow umbra cone angle Earth’s shadow penumbra cone angle Earth’s umbral cone radius in the ECI frame Earth’s penumbral cone radius in the ECI frame Sun vector in the ECI frame Magnitude of the Sun vector in the ECI frame Sun vector other than r → ⊙ Unit vectors in x , y and z -directions in the SCRF frame Transformation matrix from the ECI frame to the transformed frame Satellite position vector in the rotated frame Sun vector in the SCRF frame Components of the satellite position vector in the SCRF frame Radius of the satellite orbit Earth’s umbral cone radius in the SCRF frame Earth’s penumbral cone radius in the SCRF frame 
Earth conical shadow modeling for LEO satellite using reference frame transformation technique: A comparative study with existing earth conical shadow models