satellite orbit determination is a method of determining the state vector, i.e., position and velocity, of a low earth orbiting (leo) satellite or interplanetary spacecraft. during the past two decades, many satellites with various applications including geodetic applications have been launched at low altitudes. for instance, topex / poseidon, champ, grace and goce are the examples of the geode...

Future space surveillance requires dealing with uncertainties directly in the initial orbit determination phase. We propose an approach based on Taylor differential algebra to both solve the initial orbit determination (IOD) problem and to map uncertainties from the observables space into the orbital elements space. This is achieved by approximating in Taylor series the general formula for pdf ...

Future space surveillance requires dealing with uncertainties directly in the initial orbit determination phase. We propose an approach based on Taylor differential algebra to both solve the initial orbit determination (IOD) problem and to map uncertainties from the observables space into the orbital elements space. This is achieved by approximating in Taylor series the general formula for prob...

Linearization of the nonlinear equations and iterative solution is the most well-known scheme in many engineering problems. For geodetic applications of the LEO satellites, e.g. the Earth’s gravity field recovery, one needs to provide an initial guess of the satellite location or the so-called reference orbit. Numerical integration can be utilized for generating the reference orbit if a satelli...

The orbit determination of a satellite in a geostationary orbit is usually based on optical observations. Telescopes all around the Earth are observing the geostationary ring to obtain periodically new measurements in order to update the estimation of the objects’ orbits. One critical aspect of the orbit determination process is the initial orbit determination because no a priori information ar...