Abstract A realistic assessment of the uncertainties in the even zonals of a given geopotential model must be made by directly comparing its coefficients with those of a wholly independent solution of superior formal accuracy. Otherwise, a favorable selective bias is introduced in the evaluation of the total error budget of the LAGEOS-based Lense–Thirring tests yielding likely too optimistic figures for it. By applying a novel approach which recently appeared in the literature, the second and the third even zonals turn out to be uncertain at a and level, respectively, yielding a total gravitational error of about 27–28%, with an upper bound of 37–39%. The results by Ries et al. themselves yield an upper bound for it of about 33%. The low-degree even zonals are not exclusively determined from the GRACE Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking (SST) range since they affect it with long-period, secular-like signatures over orbital arcs longer than one orbital period: GRACE SST is not accurately sensitive to such signals. Conversely, general relativity affects it with short-period effects as well. Thus, the issue of the a priori “imprinting” of general relativity itself in the GRACE-based models used so far remains open.
Author-highlights A new, independent method to assess the uncertainty in the even zonals is used. It is applied to the LAGEOS tests of frame-dragging. It yields a 27–39% error. Different computational schemes yield different zonal errors for the LARES mission. The impact of GR in the GRACE models used in the LAGEOS tests is discussed.
Novel considerations about the error budget of the LAGEOS-based tests of frame-dragging with GRACE geopotential models
Acta Astronautica ; 91 ; 141-148
2013-06-05
8 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
The impact of the orbital decay of the LAGEOS satellites on the frame-dragging tests
Online Contents | 2015
|NTRS | 1976
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