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The orbit of lageos and solar eclipses
| Content Provider | NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
|---|---|
| Author | Rubincam, D. P. Weiss, N. R. |
| Copyright Year | 1984 |
| Description | An eclipse of the Sun by the Moon as seen by the Lageos satellite can affect the orbital semimajor axis at the centimeter level. The weakened radiation pressure acting on Lageos perturbs the orbit differently from that due to full sunlight. This difference amounted to less than 2 mm in the semimajor axis for 23 of the 30 eclipses Lageos experienced between launch in 1976 and the end of 1983. However, it was 17.6 mm for the eclipses on 28 March 1979 and 11.2 mm for the one on 15 December 1982. Differences such as these generate large enough along-track errors to make it worthwhile to include eclipses in complex orbit determination programs such as GEODYN which integrate the orbit. Eclipses cannot explain the presently unmolded variations in along-track acceleration which have a magnitude of about 3 x 10(-12) ms(-2). |
| File Size | 410826 |
| Page Count | 14 |
| File Format | |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://archive.org/details/NASA_NTRS_Archive_19840014457 |
| Archival Resource Key | ark:/13960/t88h3fz8k |
| Language | English |
| Publisher Date | 1984-03-01 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Lunar And Planetary Exploration Axes Reference Lines Solar Eclipses Lageos Satellite Orbit Calculation Acceleration Physics Satellite Perturbation Radiation Pressure Ntrs Nasa Technical Reports Server (ntrs) Nasa Technical Reports Server Aerodynamics Aircraft Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Aeronautic Space Science |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
