Premium
Determination of the gravitational coefficient of the Earth from near‐Earth satellites
Author(s) -
Ries J. C.,
Eanes R. J.,
Huang C.,
Schutz B. E.,
Shum C. K.,
Tapley B. D.,
Watkins M. M.,
Yuan D. N.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/gl016i004p00271
Subject(s) - geodesy , earth (classical element) , physics , range (aeronautics) , doppler effect , atmosphere (unit) , theory of relativity , general relativity , earth radius , geology , astronomy , classical mechanics , meteorology , magnetosphere , materials science , plasma , quantum mechanics , composite material
Laser range, doppler and altimeter data collected from 14 near‐Earth satellites have been combined to determine the value of the geocentric gravitational coefficient (GM) of the Earth. A long‐arc solution using 3 years of laser range data to Lageos was used in a separate determination in which the effects of general relativity were investigated. The value of GM (including the mass of the atmosphere) was determined to be 398600.4405 km³/sec² when all corrections for general relativity are taken into account. The uncertainty (1‐σ) in the value of GM is estimated to be 0.001 km³/sec².