Long-periodic albedo perturbations on LAGEOS

Details Long-periodic albedo perturbations on LAGEOS Long-periodic albedo perturbations on LAGEOS

Dec 1993

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993a%26a...280..282v&link_type=abstract

Astronomy and Astrophysics (ISSN 0004-6361), vol. 280, no. 1, p. 282-294

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

9

Astronomical Models, Atmospheric Effects, Earth Albedo, Earth Radiation Budget, Lageos (Satellite), Orbit Perturbation, Orbital Mechanics, Satellite Orbits, Cloud Cover, Earth Atmosphere, Earth Surface, Mathematical Models, Ocean Surface, Polar Regions, Radiation Pressure

Scientific paper

We have applied the models of the force due to radiation pressure by sunlight reflected/diffused from the Earth's surface/atmosphere developed by Vokrouhlicky et al. (1993) to study the long-term perturbations of the Laser Geodynamic Satellite's (LAGEOS') orbit. The transverse, radial and out-of-plane components of the perturbing acceleration have been computed over a time span of several years, using different models of the Earth's optical properties and the cloud coverage distribution. The resulting long-term perturbations are very sensitive to the details of the models, such as the importance of the oceanic specular reflection mode, the assumed sea/land distribution over the polar regions, the cloud distribution and its time variability. In particular, even the order of magnitude of the long-term semimajor axis perturbations cannot be estimated by assuming a diffusive optical behavior of the whole Earth, nor globally uniform optical properties, since either case the transverse acceleration component averages out over one (circular) orbit. The albedo force appears as a potentially important contributor to the observed semimajor axis residuals of LAGEOS, especially in the intervals when the orbit crosses the Earth's shadow; however, the relative amplitudes of the main spectral lines present in the orbit-averaged transverse acceleration component suggest that other physical mechanisms of comparable magnitude are effective as well. The albedo force also causes long-term perturbations of the nodal longitude of LAGEOS-type satellites, resulting in some degradation of the expected accuracy for a planned experiment to measure the relativistic Lense-Thirring precession.

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