Unit-2

ORBITS AND REFERENCE

SYSTEM
8th sem
Orbit description
 Keplers laws:
 The orbit of a planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci.
 A line segment joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas
during equal intervals of time.
 The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the
cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit.
KEPLERIAN MOTION:
ORBITAL PARAMETERS:
Assume two point masses m1 and m2 separated by the distance r,
 Con­sidering for the moment only the attractive force between the
masses and applying Newtonian mechanics, the movement of mass m2
relative to ml is defined by the homogeneous differential equation of
second order
Conti....
 Keplerian motion defined by six orbital parameters which correspond to the six
integration constants of the second­order vector equation as show above.
 There are 8 elements that defines an orbit. These elements are also called
Keplerian Elements
 Satellite orbits may be restricted to elliptic motion, and the six associated
parameters are
 Epoch Time
 Orbital Inclination
 Right Ascension of Ascending Node
 Eccentricity
 Argument of Perigee
 Mean Motion
 Mean Anomaly
 Drag
Conti...
 Epoch Time : The first thing you need to define an orbit is the time at which the Keplerian Elements
were defined. You need a snapshot of where and how fast the satellite was going.
 Orbital Inclination :This element tells you what the angle is between the equator and the orbit
when looking from the center of the Earth. If the orbit went exactly around the equator from left to
right, then the inclination would be 0. The inclination ranges from 0 to 180 degrees.
 Right Ascension of Ascending Node :The ascending node is the place where the satellite crosses
the equator while going from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere. 
 Eccentricity : The eccentricity tells you how flat the orbit is. If the orbit is a perfect circle, then the
eccentricity is 0. When the eccentricity is close to 1, then the orbit is very flat.
 Argument of Perigee :Since an orbit usually has an elliptical shape, the satellite will be closer to the
Earth at one point than at another. The point where the satellite is the closest to the Earth is called
the perigee. The point where the satellite is the furthest from the Earth is called the apogee.
 Mean Motion :The mean motion tells you how fast the satellite is going. According to Kepler's Law:
 Conti...

 Mean Anomaly :The mean anomaly tells you where the satellite is in its orbital
path. The mean anomaly ranges from 0 to 360 degrees. The mean anomaly is
referenced to the perigee. If the satellite were at the perigee, the mean anomaly
would be 0.

 Drag :Several factors can affect the velocity of a satellite. If the satellite were in a
low orbit, then the atmosphere would produce drag. This would cause the
satellite to come closer to the Earth therefore speeding up (Kepler's Law).
Another factor that can affect satellite orbits is gravitational pull from stellar
bodies such as the sun or the moon. These bodies could pull the satellite away
from the Earth causing it to slow down.
Disturbing Accelerations
 Disturbing accelerations act on a satellite and are responsible for the temporal
variations of the Keplerian elements.
 They can be divided into two groups, namely those of gravitational and those of
nongravitational origin
Conti..
 Nonsphericity of the earth
 The earth's potential V can be represented by a spherical harmonic expan­sion

 where ae is the semimajor axis of the earth, r is the geocentric distance ofthe
 satellite, and Ψ , λ are its latitude and longitude.
Conti..
 Tidal effects: Consider a celestial body with pointmass mb and the
geocentric position vector gb .

 The geocentric position vector of the sun and the moon are obtained by
evaluating known analytical expressions for their motion.

 Solar radiation pressure: The disturbing the acceleration due to the direct
solar radiation pressure.

 The principal component dφ1 is directed away from the sun and the smaller
component dφ2 acts along the satellite's y-axis. This is an axis orthogonal to
both the vector pointing to the sun and the antenna which is nominally
directed towards the center of the earth.

 Relativistic effect: The relativistic effect on the satellite orbit is caused by

the gravity field of the earth and gives rise to disturb the acceleration .
Orbit determination:
 Orbit determination essentially means the
determination of orbital pa­rameters and satellite
clock biases.
 The problem is inverse to the navigational or
surveying goal.
 The actual orbit determination which is performed
in two steps is emphasized.
 First, a Kepler ellipse is fitted to the observations.
 In the second step, this ellipse serves as reference
for the subsequent improvement of the orbit by
taking into account perturbing accelerations.
Orbit dissemination
Tracking Networks:
 Objectives and strategies
 The official orbit determination for GPS satellites is based on observations
at the five monitor stations of the control segment.
 The broadcast ephemerides for Block I satellites with cesium clocks were
accurate to about 5 m
 For the Block II satellites, the accuracy is in the or­der of about 1 m
 However, an orbital accuracy of about 20 cm is required for specific
missions such as TOPEX
 Thus, the need for civil tracking networks for orbit determination is evident
 The minimum number of sites in a global network is six
 The distribution of the GPS sites is essential to achieve the highest
accuracy.
Conti..
Examples for global networks
 Apart from the GPS control segment, several networks have been established
for orbit determination. Some networks are of regional or even continental size
such as the Australian GPS orbit determination network. Subsequently, some
examples of global networks are given.