SEARCH · Search NASA
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Photographic and Doppler tracking of geodetic satellites to determine tesseral harmonics of earth gravitational fields
Correlation of lunar radii estimates obtained from earth based photographic study and lunar orbiter gravitational field coefficient measures
Harmonic coefficients of earth gravitational field derived from satellite data with gravity anomalies
Digital analysis of liquid sloshing in rotational symmetric tanks under weak gravitational fields - Vol. 2
LUNIK X orbit studied to determine lunar gravitational field, taking into account effect of other planets
Global water redistriburtion between the oceans, atmosphere and continents causes changes in the earth's rotation and gravitational field. To conserve water mass, the effect of the small uniform change in sea-level must be considered. Explicit formulas are provided for these sea-level corrections to the gravitational Stokes coefficients, polar motion and length of day. In two recent publications, this sea-level correction term for polar motion was given incorrectly. These errors which arose from normalization conventions with the ocean function are corrected.
Remote artificial earth satellite motion in earth and moon gravitational fields
The effects of seasonal changes in continental surface-water storage on the low-degree gravitational-field coefficients (J), the annual wobble excitation (Psi), and the seasonal length-of-day (LOD) variations are investigated by means of numerical simulations based on compiled meteorological data (Willmott et al., 1985) and satellite snow-load estimates (Chao et al., 1987). The formulation of the model equations and the overall characteristics of the data sets are discussed in detail, and the computation results are presented in tables and graphs. The effect on Psi is found to be relatively small due to longitudinal cancellation, but those on LOD and J are considered significant.
Tracking geometry and dynamics of lunar satellite, estimating orbital elements and lunar gravitational field parameters through Earth- based range and range rate observations
Temporal variations in the low-degree zonal harmonics of the earth's gravitational field have recently been observed by satellite laser ranging. A host of geophysical processes contribute to these variations. The present paper studies quantitatively a prime contributor, atmospheric mass redistribution, using ECMWF global surface pressure data for the period of 1980-1988. The annual and semiannual amplitudes and phases of the zonal J(l) coefficient with degree l = 2-6 with and without the oceanic inverted-barometer (IB) effect are computed to obtain the predicted effects on the orbit nodal residuals of Lageos and Starlette. These predicted values are then compared with observations. It is found that the atmospheric influence, combined with the hydrological influence agree well with the Lageos observation for the annual term. The corresponding match appears poorer for Starlette.
At momenta much higher than the Hubble scale, the cosmological expansion can be thought of as a weak gravitational field. We consider QFT in a particularly convenient set of coordinates that makes this manifest, so that, for those high momenta, the effects of the cosmological expansion can be dealt with using the standard tools of perturbation theory in Minkowski space. In this way, we re-derive standard results of QFT in a cosmological background, such as mode-stretching and gravitational particle production. We discuss the implications of our results for the trans-Planckian problem.
The constraints placed on models of the interiors of the major planets by the nonspherical components of their gravitational fields are explained, and several methods of determining these nonspherical components are described and evaluated.
Review of the constraints imposed on models of the interiors of the major planets by the nonspherical components of their gravitational fields. Several methods for determining these nonspherical components are described and evaluated. The nature of the constraints and their effect on the models are discussed.
The use of radio tracking of a solar probe to estimate accurately the coefficient of the second zonal harmonic of the sun's gravitational field was examined. Preliminary results indicate that the coefficient can be estimated with a standard error of 10 to the minus 8th power or less, provided that the probe is equipped with a suitable drag-free system to compensate for the effects of non-gravitational accelerations. For signal paths that pass near the sun, dual-band ranging to the probe can provide the tracking accuracy needed to insure that the standard of error is equal to or less than 10 to minus 8th power. The possibility of achieving such accuracy with a single-band radio uplink and a dual-band downlink is discussed.
A study is made of the mathematical solution of the differential equation of motion of a test particle in the equatorial plane of the Kerr gravitational field, using S (Schwarzschild-like) coordinates. A qualitative solution of this equation leads to the conclusion that there can only be 25 different types of orbits. For each value of a, the results are presented in a master diagram for which h and e are the parameters. A master diagram divides the h, e parameter space into regions such that at each point within one of these regions the types of admissible orbits are qualitatively the same. A pictorial representation of the physical orbits in the r, phi plane is also given.
This article describes a Lorentz-like transformation between a fixed frame and an inertial frame that is free falling due to the presence of a uniform gravitation field. The application to the clock paradox problem and some connections with similar works are also discussed.
Covariance studies were performed to investigate the orbit determination problem for a small transponder satellite in a nearly circular polar orbit with 4-hour period around Mercury. With X band and Ka band Doppler and range measurements, the analysis indicates that the gravitational field through degree and order 10 can be solved for from as few as 40 separate 8-hour arcs of tracking data. In addition, the earth-Mercury distance can be determined during each ranging period with about 6-cm accuracy. The expected geoid accuracy is 10 cm up through degree 5, and 1 m through degree 8. The main error sources were the geocentric range measurement error, the uncertainties in higher degree gravity field terms, which were not solved for, and the solar radiation pressure uncertainty.
A global, monthly snow depth data set has been generated from the Nimbus 7 satellite observations using passive microwave remote-sensing techniques. Seven years of data, 1979-1985, are analyzed to compute the snow load effects on the earth's rotation and low-degree zonal gravitational field. The resultant time series show dominant seasonal cycles. The annual peak-to-peak variation in J2 is found to be 2.3 x 10 to the -10th, that in J3 to be 1.1 x 10 to the -10th, and believed to decrease rapidly for higher degrees. The corresponding change in the length of day is 41 micro-s. The annual wobble excitation is (4.9 marc sec, -109 deg) for the prograde motion component and (4.8 marc sec, -28 deg) for the retrograde motion component. The excitation power of the Chandler wobble due to the snow load is estimated to be about 25 dB less than the power needed to maintain the observed Chandler wobble.