Expected orbit determination performance for the TOPEX/Poseidon mission

Journal Article · Mon Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1993 · IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/36.214910· OSTI ID:6281729

Nerem, R S; Putney, B H; Marshall, J A; Lerch, F J ^[1]; Pavlis, E C ^[2]; Klosko, S M; Luthcke, S B; Patel, G B; Williamson, R G; Zelensky, N P

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1. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States)
2. Univ. of Maryland, College Park (United States)

The TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) mission, launched during the summer of 1992, has the requirement that the radial component of its orbit must be computed to an accuracy of 13 cm root-mean-square (rms) or better, allowing measurements of the sea surface height to be computed to similar accuracy when the satellite height is differenced with the altimeter measurements. This will be done by combining precise satellite tracking measurements with precise models of the forces acting on the satellite. The Space Geodesy Branch at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), as part of the T/P precision orbit determination (POD) Team, has the responsibility within NASA for the T/P precise orbit computations. The prelaunch activities of the T/P POD Team have been mainly directed towards developing improved models of the static and time-varying gravitational forces acting on T/P and precise models for the non-conservative forces perturbing the orbit of T/P such as atmospheric drag, solar and Earth radiation pressure, and thermal imbalances. The radial orbit error budget for T/P allows 10 cm rms error due to gravity field mismodeling, 3 cm due to solid Earth and ocean tides, 6 cm due to radiative forces, and 3 cm due to atmospheric drag. A prelaunch assessment of the current modeling accuracies for these forces indicates that the radial orbit error requirements can be achieved with the current models, and can probably be surpassed once T/P tracking data are used to fine tune the models. Provided that the performance of the T/P spacecraft is nominal, the precise orbits computed by the T/P POD Team should be accurate to 13 cm or better radially.

• OSTI ID: 6281729
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States), Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States) Vol. 31:2; ISSN 0196-2892; ISSN IGRSD2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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58 GEOSCIENCES
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