Abstract Users of orbital elements are often puzzled by the different ways in which mean elements are defined. This applies to all the standard elements, but the difficulty is most pronounced in regard to semi-major axis and mean motion. This paper relates mean elements to the perturbations of a satellite caused by the Earth's zonal harmonic J2, and shows how elements can be defined so that perturbations in spherical coordinates take an especially simple form. The paper concentrates on the first-order effects of J2, with formulae given to connect the preferred elements to the elements of Kozai, but it also considers the extension to second order in J2 and first order in the general zonal harmonic.
On mean elements for satellite orbits perturbed by the zonal harmonics of the geopotential
Advances in Space Research ; 10 , 3-4 ; 279-283
1989-01-01
5 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English