Identification

Title

Thermospheric basis functions for improved dynamic calibration of semi-empirical models

Abstract

State-of-the-art satellite drag models require upgrades to meet operational Precision Orbit Determination requirements for collision avoidance, reentry predictions and catalog maintenance. However, accurate model representations of thermospheric density are not currently possible without the use of data assimilation, or model calibration. Furthermore, due to sparse data sampling in the thermosphere, such calibration has only been successfully demonstrated by fitting the available data to a low-dimensional model. The High Accuracy Satellite Drag Model (HASDM), used operationally by the Space Surveillance Network to aid in the tracking of low-earth orbiting satellites, compensates for errors in the Jacchia-70 static diffusion model by fitting a truncated set of spherical harmonics to a subset of recent satellite tracking data. We present a technique to derive a set of basis functions better suited to capturing the spatial variability and response of the thermosphere. By comparing the uncompensated Jacchia-70 model with the Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Electrodynamic General Circulation Model (TIEGCM), we create a new set of orthogonal basis functions that can be used to calibrate semi-empirical models such as HASDM with increased accuracy in the presence of sparse data. An initial analysis of the new approach, driven by synthetic data, shows a 32.9% improvement in the RMS error over the current implementation of HASDM.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7g73fgp

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2012-10-05T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact