Recent advances in analytical satellite theory

Abstract

Recent work on analytical satellite perturbation theory has involved the completion of a revision to 4th order for zonal harmonics, the addition of a treatment for ocean tides, an extension of the treatment for the noninertial reference system, and the completion of a theory for direct solar-radiation pressure and earth-albedo pressure. Combined with a theory for tesseral-harmonics, lunisolar, and body-tide perturbations, these formulations provide a comprehensive orbit-computation program. Detailed comparisons with numerical integration and observations are presented to assess the accuracy of each theoretical development.