A UT1-Like Quantity from Analysis of GPS Orbit Planes |
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| Authors: | Peter Kammeyer |
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| Institution: | (1) Earth Orientation Department, U.S. Naval Observatory, 3450 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20392-5420, U.S.A. |
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| Abstract: | This paper discusses a UT1-like quantity, UTGPS, determined daily from Earth-referenced GPS satellite orbits from the International GPS Service (IGS). For each satellite considered, the observed relation between the satellite's IGS orbit and a model of its orbit plane in inertial space is used to estimate UT1. This modeled orbit plane is initialized using the satellite's IGS orbit and the actual UT1 at an initial time. It is then propagated using standard models of gravitational forces and an empirical model representing the orbit-normal radiation pressure observed during several years of in-flight experience with the satellite. To estimate UT1, an a-priori transformation from terrestrial to true-of-date celestial coordinates is applied to the satellite's IGS orbit. The geocentric angular deviations of points of the resulting transformed orbit from the modeled orbit plane are analyzed, giving the angle between the ascending nodes of the satellite's transformed and modeled orbit planes. To this observed angle between nodes, converted to a UT1 difference, is added the a-priori UT1 value used in the transformation. From the result is subtracted a model of the angle, again converted to a UT1 difference, between the ascending nodes of the actual and modeled orbit planes. The final result is the estimate of UT1 from this satellite, and the median of the UT1 estimates from all satellites considered is UTGPS. The root-mean-square difference between UTGPS-UT1 at the beginning and at the end of an interval of one to four weeks is approximately 30  s times the square root of the interval's duration in weeks.This revised version was published online in October 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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| Keywords: | Global Positioning System orbit analysis radiation pressure Earth orientation UT1 |
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