A Comparison of Nonlinear Filters for Orbit Determination and Estimation

Abstract

This research compares the performance of three filters which have been applied to the problem of orbit determination using actual satellite tracking data obtained from ground based radars. The states estimated are the osculating classical orbital elements and the satellite ballistic coefficient. The dynamics used to propagate the state vector forward include the two-body acceleration plus perturbations due to atmospheric drag, zonal harmonics in the geopotential through J(2), and tesseral harmonics in the geopotential through J(44). The atmospheric density model used is an exponential model that includes diurnal variations and variations in the decimeter solar flux. The observations used to update the state vector estimates are slant range, azimuth, and elevation relative to a radar site. the three filters investigated in this research are a nonlinear least squares filter, an Extended Kalman filter, and a Gauss second order filter. Data are processed for three different satellites.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1986
Accession Number
ADA170680

Entities

People

  • Daryl G. Boden

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Algorithms
  • Altitude
  • Atmospheric Density
  • Elevation
  • Engineering
  • Equations
  • Equations Of Motion
  • Filters
  • High Altitude
  • Kalman Filters
  • Low Altitude
  • Mathematical Filters
  • Optimal Estimators
  • Orbital Elements
  • Recursive Filters
  • Satellite Orbits

Readers

  • Adaptive Control and Estimation with Uncertainty in Dynamic Systems.
  • Space Exploration and Orbital Mechanics.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Orbital Debris