Inaccuracies in modeling the effects of atmospheric drag account for a large portion of errors in low-altitude satellite orbit prediction. By incorporating short-arc ballistic factor time history data from a significant portion of the space catalog of low-earth satellites, time-localized errors in the atmospheric density models, especially biases, can be reduced. This algorithm uses only data that is already available and is independent of the density model employed. The paper includes the mathematical details of the algorithm as well as its implementation. The algorithm also provides improved estimates of the ballistic factors for satellites with uncertain or slowly-varying ballistic factors. This algorithm has been implemented using the Goddard Trajectory Determination System (GTDS) for the orbital motion calculations, Matlab for the atmospheric density correction calculations, and Perl to coordinate the several processes. Validation of the code is in progress, and the performance and limitations of the algorithm are analyzed.
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