Applications

Abstract

The trajectory and measurement model developed so far provides a concise and detailed description of a satellite’s motion with respect to an Earth-bound observer. Besides the state variables that define the initial conditions, thesemodels depend on a variety of parameters that either affect the dynamical motion or the measurement process. Due to the complexity of the applied models it is hardly possible to solve directly for any of these parameters from a given set of observations. It is therefore customary to linearize the relation between the observables and the independent parameters to obtain simplified expressions that can be handled more easily.Within a statistical orbit determination one can then determine those state and model parameters that provide the best representation of a large set of measurements using a differential correction and parameter estimation algorithm.