The Orbits of the Major Saturnian Satellites and the Gravity Field of Saturn from Spacecraft and Earth-based Observations

Abstract

We have fitted numerically integrated orbits for the major Saturnian satellites to a large set of astrometric observations over the time interval 1966 September to 2003 December and to data obtained with the Pioneer 11, Voyager, and Cassini spacecraft. The results of the fit are new ephemerides for the satellites and a revised gravity field for the Saturnian system. We include an accuracy assessment for the ephemerides and the gravity parameters.