The US Navy's GEOSAT Follow-On spacecraft was launched on February 10, 1998 with its primary mission objective to map the oceans using a radar altimeter. The spacecraft tracking complement consists of GPS receivers, a laser retroreflector and Doppler beacons. Since the GPS receivers have not yet returned reliable data, the only means of providing high-quality precise orbits has been though satellite laser ranging (SLR). SLR has tracked the spacecraft since April 22, 1998, and an average of 7 passes per day have been obtained from US and foreign stations. Since the predicted radial orbit error due to the gravity field is only two to three cm, the largest contributor to the high SLR residuals (10 cm) is the mismodelling of the non-conservative forces. The SLR residuals show a clear correlation with beta prime (solar elevation) angle, peaking in mid-August 1998 when the beta prime angle reached -80 to -90 degrees. We report in this paper on the analysis of the GFO tracking data (SLR, Doppler, and if available GPS) using GEODYN, and on the tuning of the non-conservative force model and the gravity model using these data.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Precise Orbit Determination for the GEOSAT Follow-On Spacecraft




    Publication date :

    1999-05-01


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English


    Keywords :


    Precise Orbit Determination for the GEOSAT Follow-On Spacecraft

    Lemoine, F. / Rowlands, D. / Zelensky, N. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1999


    Precision Orbit Determination for the Geosat Follow-On Satellites

    Kelly Irish / Kenn Gold / George Born et al. | AIAA | 1998



    Towards the GEOSAT Follow-On Precise Orbit Determination Goals of High Accuracy and Near-Real-Time Processing

    Lemoine, Frank G. / Zelensky, Nikita P. / Chinn, Douglas S. et al. | NTRS | 2006