[S-GD02] Geodesy and Global Geodetic Observing System

[SGD02-P06] Precise orbit determination of the non-standard SLR satellites : (2) impact on the Earth’s gravity field determination

*Koji Matsuo¹, Toshimichi Otsubo² (1.Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, 2.Hitotsubashi University)

Keywords:SLR, Precise orbit determination, gravity

Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) technique plays a major role in the determination of earth geodetic parameters such as the earth’s mass, center of mass, scale, and dynamical flattening (second-degree of the earth’s gravity field coefficients). Commonly, the LAGEOS satellites by the Unites States, orbiting at an altitude of 6000 km, are used for the determination of earth geodetic parameters by SLR. Although the tracking data of the LAGEOS satellites have a large number of observations and stable quality, they are not suitable for the determination of high-degree parameters due to their high altitude: as for the determination of the gravity field coefficients, it is limited up to degree 2. Matsuo et al. (2013) showed that the earth's gravity field coefficients can be determined up to degree 4 by using low earth orbit satellite tracking data of Starlet, Ajisai, and Stella with an altitude of 800~1500km. In this study, we further investigate the possibility of determining the higher degree gravity field coefficients by introducing satellite tracking data from Larets satellite and SARAL satellite with an altitude of 700 km.