The challenge to reliably measure the general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect with a few percent accuracy

TL;DR

This paper critically examines the challenges and limitations in accurately measuring the Earth's Lense-Thirring effect using current satellite data and gravity models, highlighting the difficulties in achieving a few percent measurement accuracy.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of existing measurement attempts, evaluates the impact of gravity models, and discusses the potential role of the LARES satellite in improving measurement accuracy.

Findings

Current satellite-based measurements face significant challenges in achieving high accuracy.

Gravity model uncertainties significantly affect the measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect.

The proposed LARES satellite's role in improving measurement precision is critically assessed.

Abstract

In this paper we critically analyze the so far performed and proposed tests for measuring the general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect in the gravitational field of the Earth with some of the existing accurately tracked artificial satellites. The impact of the 2nd generation GRACE-only EIGEN-GRACE02S Earth gravity model and of the 1st CHAMP+GRACE+terrestrial gravity combined EIGEN-CG01C Earth gravity model is discussed. The role of the proposed LARES is discussed as well.