A geopause satellite system concept

The forthcoming 10 cm range tracking accuracy capability holds much promise in connection with a number of Earth and ocean dynamics investigations. These include a set of earthquake-related studies of fault motions and the Earth's tidal, polar and rotational motions, as well as studies of the gravity field and the sea surface topography which should furnish basic information about mass and heat flow in the oceans. The state of the orbit analysis art is presently at about the 10 m level, or about two orders of magnitude away from the 10 cm range accuracy capability expected in the next couple of years or so. The realization of a 10 cm orbit analysis capability awaits the solution of four kinds of problems, namely, those involving orbit determination and the lack of sufficient knowledge of tracking system biases, the gravity field, and tracking station locations. The Geopause satellite system concept offers promising approaches in connection with all of these areas. A typical Geopause satellite orbit has a 14 hour period, a mean height of about 4.6 Earth radii, and is nearly circular, polar, and normal to the ecliptic. At this height only a relatively few gravity terms have uncertainties corresponding to orbital perturbations above the decimeter level. The orbit s, in this sense, at the geopotential boundary, i.e., the geopause. The few remaining environmental quantities which may be significant can be determined by means of orbit analyses and accelerometers. The Geopause satellite system also provides the tracking geometery and coverage needed for determining the orbit, the tracking system biases and the station locations. Studies indicate that the Geopause satellite, tracked with a 2 cm ranging system from nine NASA affiliated sites, can yield decimeter station location accuracies. Five or more fundamental stations well distributed in longitude can view Geopause over the North Pole. This means not only that redundant data are available for determining tracking system biases, but also that both components of the polar motion can be observed frequently. When tracking Geopause, the NASA sites become a two-hemisphere configuration which is ideal for a number of Earth physics applications such as the observation of the polar motion with a time resolution of a fraction of a day. Geopause also provides the basic capability for satellite-to-satellite tracking of drag-free satellites for mapping the gravity field and altimeter satellites for surveying the sea surface topography. Geopause tracking a coplanar, drag-free satellite for two months to 0.03 mm per second accuracy can yield the geoid over the entire Earth to decimeter accuracy with 2.5° spatial resolution. Two Geopause satellites tracking a coplanar altimeter satellite can then yield ocean surface heights above the geoid with 7° spatial resolution every two weeks. These data will furnish basic boundary condition information about mass and heat flows in the oceans which are important in shaping weather and climate.