Tesseral harmonics of the gravitational potential of the earth as derived from satellite motions

Abstract

Some constants associated with tesseral harmonics of the gravitational potential of the earth are derived by use of photoreduced Baker-Nunn observations of satellites t958 2, 1959 , and 1959 . Since the periods of the long-periodic perturbations due to the tesseral harmonics are known, amplitudes and phases of the periodic terms are obtained by the differential orbit improvement program for each element of each satellite. On the assumption that tesseral harmonics of higher than fourth degree cannot cause any appre- ciable effect on the satellite motion, constants of the tesseral harmonics are derived from the observed amplitudes and phases, and are given in Table V.