Preliminary study for the measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect with the Galileo satellites

TL;DR

This study explores the potential of using Galileo satellite data to measure the Lense-Thirring effect, focusing on mitigating solar radiation pressure errors through optimal orbit parameterizations.

Contribution

It introduces a simulation-based analysis of Galileo orbit parameters to enhance LTE measurement accuracy by reducing SRP-related errors.

Findings

Galileo satellites can improve LTE measurement accuracy when combined with existing data.

Optimal orbit parameterizations can significantly reduce SRP-induced errors.

Simulated data shows potential for more precise frame-dragging effect detection.

Abstract

The precession of the orbital node of a particle orbiting a rotating mass is known as Lense-Thirring effect (LTE) and is a manifestation of the general relativistic phenomenon of dragging of inertial frames or frame-dragging. The LTE has already been measured by using the node drifts of the LAGEOS satellites and GRACE-based Earth gravity field models with an accuracy of about 10% and will be improved down to a few percent with the recent LARES experiment. The Galileo system will provide 27 new node observables for the LTE estimation and their combination with the LAGEOS and LARES satellites can potentially reduce even more the error due to the mismodeling in Earth's gravity field. However, the accurate determination of the Galileo orbits requires the estimation of many different parameters, which can absorb the LTE on the orbital nodes. Moreover, the accuracy of the Galileo orbits and hence, of their node drifts, is mainly limited by the mismodeling in the Solar Radiation Pressure (SRP). Using simulated data we analyze the effects of the mismodeling in the SRP on the Galileo nodes and propose optimal orbit parameterizations for the measurement of the LTE from the future Galileo observations.