A MODEL FOR SATELLITE POSITION AND VELOCITY WITH RESPECT TO GROUND TOPOGRAPHY

摘要

A typical instrumentation package in planetary observation missions is a radar altimeter or a lidar, which takes either range or velocity measurements of an electromagnetic signal reflected off the ground. For measurement system analysis or for experiment effectiveness/response analysis it may be of interest to have available an analytical model of the motion of the satellite with respect to the topography of the planet or minor body. This paper develops such model on the basis of a Kaula-type theory of satellite radial, motion and a representation of the main body topography in spherical harmonics. This is achieved by introducing a representation of the elevation model along the ground-track of the satellite.