On a new observable for measuring the Lense-Thirring effect with Satellite Laser Ranging

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new observable based on the difference of perigees of supplementary satellites to measure the Lense-Thirring effect, providing an extensive error analysis for satellite laser ranging data.

Contribution

It introduces a novel observable for detecting the Lense-Thirring effect and offers a detailed error budget analysis for satellite laser ranging measurements.

Findings

Error budget for the perigee difference observable is thoroughly analyzed.

The proposed method enhances the potential accuracy of Lense-Thirring effect measurements.

The approach addresses key sources of measurement uncertainty.

Abstract

In this paper we present a rather extensive error budget for the difference of the perigees of a pair of supplementary SLR satellites aimed to the detection of the Lense-Thirring effect.