The effect of the diurnal variation in temperature on densities derived from near-circular satellite orbits,with applications to Skylab 1 (1973-27A) |
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| Authors: | P Moore |
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| Institution: | Earth Satellite Research Unit, Department of Mathematics, University of Aston, Birmingham, U.K. |
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| Abstract: | Satellites in almost circular paths experience appreciable drag throughout the entire orbit; the localised effect being intrinsically related to the global distribution of exospheric temperature. To normalise the density values derived from such orbits to a fixed temperature, an effective exospheric temperature is required. In this paper a “pseudo” exospheric temperature is determined analytically such that, by assuming the atmosphere is held constant at this temperature, the same perturbation in the semi-major axis is achieved as that by a satellite moving in an atmosphere exhibiting a realistic approximant to the measured diurnal variation in temperature. The theory is applied to data and densities derived from orbital analysis of Skylab 1 and the course of the semi-annual variation is retraced for 1974–1976. |
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