Magellan ephemeris improvement using synthetic aperture radar landmark measurements

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Magellan Spacecraft (Nasa), Planet Ephemerides, Spacecraft Orbits, Synthetic Aperture Radar, Venus Surface, Doppler Effect, Radar Echoes, Radar Imagery

Scientific paper

A technique is described for measuring the positions of landmarks in multiple SAR images of the surface of Venus taken aboard the Magellan spacecraft. These measurements are then used to improve the spacecraft orbit estimate. The Venus-fixed coordinates of the landmarks are also estimated, as are the low-order coefficients of the gravitational field. Sample results are shown for five-orbit and 13-orbit data arcs using hundreds of landmark measurements. Reasonably good fits to the data are obtained for the short-arc solutions, while the data fits over long arcs are poorer, possibly due to higher-order uncertainties in the gravitational field. A comparison of post-fit orbit uncertainties shows that the SAR data significantly improves the orbit estimate.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Magellan ephemeris improvement using synthetic aperture radar landmark measurements does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Magellan ephemeris improvement using synthetic aperture radar landmark measurements, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Magellan ephemeris improvement using synthetic aperture radar landmark measurements will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1166195

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.