NOTE ON DETERMINING THE OVERALL DISTANCE SCALE OF THE EARTH USING HIGH ALTITUDE SATELLITES,
Abstract
The note presents the results of a recently completed simulation which indicates that satellite orbits with markedly different altitudes are required to determine accurately both the zeroth order zonal harmonic (the term in the geopotential representing the total force constant of the earth) and the distance scale to be applied to tracking station radii. While the simulation presents only the results for doppler data, the analysis shows that analogous results are to be expected for range data when comparable in accuracy to the doppler data. The results indicate that data which contains biases equivalent to about 5 meters position error cannot determine independently the total mass constant and distance scale factor to better than about 2/100,000 if only satellites of about 1000 km altitude are used. However, it is shown that if one satellite of at least 3000 km altitude is included, the error should be decreased to about 5/1,000,000. Radar range data with a bias error of less than 3 meters should allow the error to be reduced to below 1/100,000 for satellites of 1000 km altitude. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 23, 1964
- Accession Number
- AD0622479
Entities
People
- W. H. Guier
Organizations
- Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory