Is it possible to improve the present LAGEOS-LAGEOS II Lense-Thirring experiment?

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the current accuracy of the LAGEOS-LAGEOS II Lense-Thirring experiment and explores potential improvements, finding limited gains with alternative satellite combinations due to systematic errors.

Contribution

The study assesses the possibility of enhancing the Lense-Thirring measurement accuracy using different satellite data combinations, identifying only marginal improvements.

Findings

Current systematic error is about 12.9%.

Alternative satellite combinations offer limited error reduction.

One specific combination reduces error to 10.7%.

Abstract

The Lense-Thirring effect is currently being measured by means of a combination of the orbital residuals of the nodes of LAGEOS and LAGEOS II and the perigee of LAGEOS II. The total error is of the order of 20%. The most insidious systematic error is due to the mismodelled even zonal harmonics of the geopotential and amounts to 12.9%, according to EGM96 model. The role and the importance of the LAGEOS--LAGEOS II Lense--Thirring experiment is investigated. Using other suitable combinations with orbital elements of the other existing laser-ranged satellites does not yield significative improvements except for one combination including the nodes of LAGEOS, LAGEOS II and Ajisai and the perigee of LAGEOS II. The related systematic error due to the mismodelled even zonal part of the geopotential reduces to almost 10.7%.