Satellite non-gravitational orbital perturbations and the detection of the gravitomagnetic clock effect

dc.creatorIorio, Lorenzo
dc.date2000-07-21
dc.date2001-08-07
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T10:51:46Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T10:51:46Z
dc.descriptionThe general relativistic gravitomagnetic clock effect consists in the fact that two massive test bodies orbiting a central spinning mass in its equatorial plane along two identical circular trajectories, but in opposite directions, take different times in describing a full revolution with respect to an asymptotically inertial observer. In the field of the Earth such time shift amounts to 10^{-7} s. Detecting it by means of a space based mission with artificial satellites is a very demanding task because there are severe constraints on the precision with which the radial and azimuthal positions of a satellite must be known: delta r= 10^{-2} cm and delta phi= 10^{-2} milliarcseconds per revolution. In this paper we assess if the systematic errors induced by various non-gravitational perturbations allow to meet such stringent requirements. A couple of identical, passive laser-ranged satellites of LAGEOS type with their spins aligned with the Earth's one is considered. It turns out that all the non vanishing non-gravitational perturbations induce systematic errors in r and phi within the required constraints for a reasonable assumption of the mismodeling in some satellite's and Earth's parameters and/or by using dense satellites with small area-to-mass ratio. However, the error in the Earth's GM is by far the largest source of uncertainty in the azimuthal location which is affected at a level of 1.2 milliarcseconds per revolution.
dc.descriptionLaTex2e, 12 pages, no figures, no tables. Reference added
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0007057
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0007057
dc.identifierClass.Quant.Grav.18:4303-4310,2001
dc.identifierdoi:10.1088/0264-9381/18/20/309
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/184930
dc.subjectGeneral Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.subjectGeophysics
dc.subjectSpace Physics
dc.titleSatellite non-gravitational orbital perturbations and the detection of the gravitomagnetic clock effect
dc.typetext

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