Progress of the satellite laser ranging system TROS1000

Ranging performance of satellite laser altimeters

Topographic mapping of the earth, moon and planets can be accomplished with high resolution and accuracy using satellite laser altimeters. These systems employ nanosecond laser pulses and microradian beam divergences to achieve submeter vertical range resolution from orbital altitudes of several hundred kilometers. In this paper we develop detailed expressions for the range and pulse width meas...

Satellite Laser Ranging and General Relativity

Satellite Laser Ranging and General Relativity

GNSS Satellite Orbit Validation Using Satellite Laser Ranging

With a total of four new regional and global navigation satellite systems that have launched first satellites or even started an operational service, the GNSS landscape has experienced major changes in recent years. As part of the Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) of the International GNSS Service (IGS), a global network of multi-GNSS monitoring stations has been established and various analysis cen...

Measuring the Relativistic Perigee Advance with Satellite Laser Ranging

The pericenter advance of a test body by a central mass is one of the classical tests of General Relativity. To day this effect is measured with radar ranging by the perihelion shift of Mercury and other planets, in the gravitational field of Sun, with a relative accuracy of the order of 10–10. In this paper we explore the possibility of a measurement of the pericenter advance in the gravitatio...