Decay of Satellite Orbits Due to the Drag of Rotating Oblate Atmosphere with Scale Height Dependent on Altitude

Abstract

The motion of near-earth satellite orbits with the air drag effect is developed in terms of the KS elements utilizing the Earth’s zonal harmonic terms up to J 6 and an oblate atmospheric model with varying scale height dependent on altitude. The variation of the rotational velocity of the atmosphere is taken into account. Numerical studies are carried out (over a wide range of orbital parameters) with Matlab software (version7). The accuracies of the numerical computations are checked with the bilinear relations in KS elements, and are found to be satisfactory. We compared our results with those of Saad et al. (Planet Space Sci 56(3–4):537–541, 2008) and found more agreement with the observed decay of RS-1.