Other
Scientific paper
May 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agusm.g22a..02d&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2002, abstract #G22A-02
Other
1214 Geopotential Theory And Determination, 1229 Reference Systems, 1241 Satellite Orbits, 1244 Standards And Absolute Measurements, 1294 Instruments And Techniques
Scientific paper
Since the LAGEOS I satellite was launched in 1976, the systematic instrument error of the best satellite laser ranging observatories has been steadily reduced. Advances in overall system accuracy, in conjunction with improved satellite, Earth, orbit perturbation and relativity modeling, now allows us to determine the value of the geocentric gravitational coefficient (GM) to less than a part per billion (ppb). This precision has been confirmed by observations of the LAGEOS II satellite, and is supported by results from Starlette, albeit at a lower level of precision. When we consider observations from other geodetic satellites orbiting at a variety of altitudes and carrying somewhat more complex retro-reflector arrays, we obtain consistent measures of scale, which however must be based upon empirically determined, satellite-dependent detector characteristics. The estimates of GM from SLR analysis fall comfortably within the ten ppb uncertainty of that determined from the most accurate alternative from lunar laser ranging observations. The adoption of a value of GM differing by a ppb would result in a difference of a few millimeters in the height definition of a near-Earth satellite. The precision of the estimate of GM from satellite laser ranging has improved by an order of magnitude in each of the last two decades, and we will discuss projected advances which will result in further refinements of this measure of Earth scale.
Dunn Patrick
Kolenkiewicz Ron
Smith Douglas
Torrence Mark
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