Numerical comparison between Brouwer's theory and solution by Cowell's method for the orbit of an artificial satellite

Abstract

Verification of a machine program for computing the orbit of an artificial satellite by Brouwer's theory was attempted by comparison with a Cowell's integration. Verification was unsuccessful until second-order terms were introduced into Brouwer's theory for the element a. The requirement for a to second order is peculiar to the operation of using osculating elements to transfer the orbit computations to special pertur- bations, or even to another general perturbation.