Performance of Three Atmospheric Density Models on Precise Orbit Determination for Haiyang-2A Satellite Using DORIS Data

Abstract

DORIS has become a matured space geodetic technique after more than ten years of development. This geodetic technique is mainly applied to determine the orbit for the low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite. There are a number of non-conservative forces acting on Haiyang-2A (HY-2A) satellite with altitude of about 970 km, in which the atmospheric drag is the most dominant and uncertainty in the precise orbit determination (POD) with the dynamic method. In order to achieve POD for HY-2A, MSIS-86, Jacchia 1971 and DTM87 models were evaluated in this study. The precise orbits of HY-2A from DORIS data were compared with the precise orbit ephemeris computed by the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES). Tests demonstrated that the relative optimal atmospheric density model was the empirical MSIS-86 model for HY-2A satellite with the corresponding drag coefficient of 2.0. The RMS of orbit difference between the derived orbits using MSIS-86 and the CNES orbits was 0.842 cm in the radial direction, and 3.899 cm in three dimensions (3D). This study will provide valuable references for the LEO satellites with similar altitude and surface, especially for the other HY-2 series satellite of China.