Effects on satellite orbits in the gravitational field of an axisymmetric central body with a mass monopole and arbitrary spin multipole moments

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how satellite orbits are affected by the gravitational field of an axisymmetric body with complex spin multipole moments, deriving perturbations including gravitomagnetic effects like Lense-Thirring.

Contribution

It extends perturbation theory to bodies with arbitrary spin multipole moments, generalizing known gravitomagnetic effects to more complex mass distributions.

Findings

Derived first-order perturbations for satellite orbits in complex gravitational fields.

Reproduced Lense-Thirring effects as a special case.

Provided formulas for secular and periodic orbit perturbations.

Abstract

Perturbations of satellite orbits in the gravitational field of a body with a mass monopole and arbitrary spin multipole moments are considered for an axisymmetric and stationary situation. Periodic and secular effects caused by the central gravitomagnetic field are derived by a first order perturbation theory. For a central spin-dipole field these results reduce to the well known Lense-Thirring effects.