Modified Atmospheric Density Model (MADM)

摘要

Due to poor atmospheric density models for computing drag forces on satellites, AF Space Battlelab approved the initiative MADM. The Modified Atmospheric Density Model's objective is to update an atmospheric density model in near real-time using satellite-tracking data. This is accomplished by attempting to apply intelligent feedback from the empirical drag data for satellites in stable orbits to correct the overall atmospheric model density error. MADM uses an engineering approach, opposed to a scientific approach. MADM was able to reduce the modeled density error from approximately 15% to about 5% when applied to a study set of LEO satellites. This model density improvement dampened fluctuations in ballistic coefficients leading to an average improvement of about 200%. The final demonstrations showed that 80% of the overall catalog had improved prediction orbits in near real-time. Final operational processing techniques show significant promise, but will require some additional work.