ORBIT PERTURBATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL EARTH SATELLITES AS FUNCTIONS OF GRAVITY ANOMALIES AND DIFFERENTIAL CORRECTIONS OF ORBIT AND STATION COORDINATES,
Abstract
In the first part of this report the orbit perturbations of an artificial earth satellite are given as functions of the gravity anomalies by means of Stokes' formula. To compute the perturbations, the perturbed equations of motion are integrated numerically and the usual integration technique is applied for Stokes' formula by dividing the surface of the earth into surface elements in which the gravity anomaly and Stokes' function are regarded as constants. In a numerical example orbit perturbations are computed for three satellites with different orbital elements from mean anomalies of different sizes of surface elements to determine the influence of the sizes of surface elements on the orbit perturbations. In the second part it is assumed that the gravity field of the earth is well known from gravity anomalies. To obtain a precise orbit of a satellite by these data, a method using differential corrections is given to compute more accurate orbital elements and more accurate coordinates of the tracking stations, whose observations determine the orbit. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1968
- Accession Number
- AD0670605
Entities
People
- Karl-rudolf Koch
Organizations
- Ohio State University