OBSERVATIONS OF RESONANCE BETWEEN SATELLITES IN A HIGH-DRAG ENVIRONMENT AND HIGH-ORDER TESSERAL TERMS OF THE GEOPOTENTIAL EXPANSION
Abstract
Previous works by others have presented evidence of a satellite resonance phenomenon with geopotential tesseral terms of order m = 13 and m = 14. This report presents an analysis of the data of five satellites and provides evidence for this resonance phenomenon with terms of order m = 16, m = 17, and m = 32. By using two atmospheric density models in the analysis, it was concluded that even in a high-drag environment one observes an underlying satellite resonance phenomenon with geopotential forces arising from high-degree and high- order tesseral terms of the geopotential expansion. An accurate determination of the descriptive parameters, difficult with the present low-altitude satellite data and atmospheric density models available, must therefore be the result of a joint geopotential-atmosphere study, or await the direct use of drag accelerometer data.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1966
- Accession Number
- AD0800177
Entities
People
- Taylor P. Gabbard
Organizations
- The Aerospace Corporation