Physics
Scientific paper
Nov 1972
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1972rspsa.330..467k&link_type=abstract
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Volume 330, Issue 1583, pp. 467-494
Physics
1
Scientific paper
Cosmos 316 (1969-108A) was a most unusual satellite. It was launched on 23 December 1969 into an orbit having a very low perigee (height 154 km) and inclined at 49.5 degrees to the equator. But, because of its high mass/area ratio, Cosmos 316 remained in orbit for 8 months, thus offering a unique opportunity to study the atmosphere at heights near 150 km by analysis of orbital changes. Orbits have been determined at 36 epochs during the satellite's life with the aid of the R.A.E. orbit determination program Prop; about 1600 observations were used, mainly radar and visual, but also some accurate photographic observations. The orbits obtained, which utilize the full accuracy of the observations, are the most accurate and consistent yet published for a satellite with such a low perigee. The perigee and apogee distances are accurate to about 150 m, and the s.d. in inclination is generally between 0.0005 degrees and 0.0025 degrees. The final orbit, at an epoch 20 h before re-entry and with a perigee height of 118 km, is among the most accurate, and indicates how the drag coefficient decreases as the atmospheric mean free path decreases to less than the satellite's dimensions. The changes in inclination are analysed to determine upper-atmosphere winds, which prove to be very variable: the most extreme is a west-to-east wind of order 300 m/s in the afternoon in near-equatorial regions of the southern hemisphere between 24 July and 7 August 1970. The perigee distances have been used previously in determining variations of upper-atmosphere density, and are now also used to evaluate scale height. It proved possible to detect the change in inclination at the time of 15th-order resonance with the Earth's gravitational field, when successive ground tracks are 24 degrees apart, and an equation for the 15th-order coefficients in the geopotential was obtained which confirms recent results from Transit 1B.
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