Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)-Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite (KOMPSAT)-2B (GK-2B) is a Korean geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellite that is scheduled to be launched in 2020 for meteorological and ocean monitoring. While the primary orbit determination (OD) for GK-2B is by ground-based radar observations and the expected orbit precision is less than 1 km, a satellite laser ranging (SLR) technique has been selected as a subsidiary OD method to verify/complement/enhance primary OD results. In general, the available time and equipment for observing GEO satellites with SLR are limited. Furthermore, because the optical sensors mounted on GK-2B may be defected by laser, only a domestic single SLR station would obtain the tracking data. This research presents the mitigation of these drawbacks to improve orbit precision. Observation data generation and the associated OD of GK-2B are performed by considering numerical SLR data analysis on Compass-G1, a Chinese GEO navigation satellite, and Chinese SLR station at Changchun. With the OD performed for two scenarios with the varying number of observations, the 3D position error is 24.01 m when 13 observations per day are obtained, while the error becomes 43.46 m when 9 observations per day are obtained. To verify these results, the OD of Compass-G1 using actual SLR data from Changchun station is performed to yield 31.89 m for 3D error, which is favorable compared with the external precise ephemeris by GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) analysis center. Therefore, the OD based on single SLR station is applicable to estimating the orbit within less than 100 m.
The global electro-optical (EO) and laser tracking sensor network was considered to investigate improvements to orbit prediction (OP) accuracy of space debris by combining angle and laser ranging data. However, it is worth noting that weather, schedule and visibility constraints can frequently limit the operations of such sensors, which may not result in sufficient tracking data for accurate OP. In this study, several 1-day OP results for low Earth orbit (LEO) space debris targets were demonstrated under a limited observation environment to verify the OP accuracy through the combination of angle and laser ranging data from two sites. For orbit determination (OD) processes, it was considered to analyze the OP accuracy by one site providing both 2–day arc angle data and 1-day arc laser ranging data, while the other was limited to 1-day arc angle data. In addition, the initial ballistic coefficient ( B C ) application method was proposed and implemented for the improvement of OD/OP accuracy, which introduces the modified correction factor depending on the drag coefficient. In the cases of combining the angle and laser ranging data, the OP results show the 3D position difference values are below 100 m root mean square (RMS) with small position uncertainty. This value satisfies the target OP accuracy for conjunction assessments and blind laser ranging (about 50–100 m at 1000 km altitude). The initial B C application method also shows better OP accuracy than the method without the correction factor.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.