Mon Oct 13, F. Flechtner
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Iorio, Lorenzo, 2018. On Testing Frame-Dragging with LAGEOS and a Recently Announced Geodetic Satellite. Universe, 4(11):113, doi:10.3390/universe4110113.
• from the NASA Astrophysics Data System • by the DOI System •
@ARTICLE{2018Univ....4..113I,
author = {{Iorio}, Lorenzo},
title = "{On Testing Frame-Dragging with LAGEOS and a Recently Announced Geodetic Satellite}",
journal = {Universe},
keywords = {experimental studies of gravity, experimental tests of gravitational theories, satellite orbits, harmonics of the gravity potential field, General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology, Physics - Space Physics},
year = 2018,
month = oct,
volume = {4},
number = {11},
eid = {113},
pages = {113},
abstract = "{Recently, Ciufolini and coworkers announced the forthcoming launch of a
new cannonball geodetic satellite in 2019. It should be injected
in an essentially circular path with the same semimajor axis a
of LAGEOS (Laser Geodynamics Satellite), in orbit since 1976,
and an inclination I of its orbital plane supplementary with
respect to that of its existing cousin. According to their
proponents, the sum of the satellites' precessions of the
longitudes of the ascending nodes {\ensuremath{\Omega}} should
allow one to test the general relativistic
Lense{\textendash}Thirring effect to a ≃0.2\% accuracy level,
with a contribution of the mismodeling in the even zonal
harmonics
J{\ensuremath{\ell}},{\ensuremath{\ell}}=2,4,6,{\textellipsis}
of the geopotential to the total error budget as little as
0.1\%. Actually, such an ambitious goal seems to be hardly
attainable because of the direct and indirect impact of, at
least, the first even zonal J2. On the one hand, the lingering
scatter of the estimated values of such a key geophysical
parameter from different recent GRACE/GOCE-based (Gravity
Recovery and Climate Experiment/Gravity field and steady-state
Ocean Circulation Explorer) global gravity field solutions is
representative of an uncertainty which may directly impact the
summed Lense{\textendash}Thirring node precessions at a
≃70{\textendash}80\% in the worst scenarios, and to a
≃3{\textendash}10\% level in other, more favorable cases. On the
other hand, the phenomenologically measured secular decay aË™ of
the semimajor axis of LAGEOS (and, presumably, of the other
satellite as well), currently known at a
{\ensuremath{\sigma}}a˙≃0.03 m yr‑1 level after more than 30 yr,
will couple with the sum of the J2-induced node precessions
yielding an overall bias as large as ≃20{\textendash}40\% after
5{\textendash}10 yr. A further systematic error of the order of
≃2{\textendash}14\% may arise from an analogous interplay of the
secular decay of the inclination IË™ with the oblateness-driven
node precessions.}",
doi = {10.3390/universe4110113},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
eprint = {1809.07620},
primaryClass = {gr-qc},
adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018Univ....4..113I},
adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}
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