The Radiation Pressure and the Motion of the Artificial Satellites


Ladislav Sehnal




The paper deals with the radiative effects on the motion of the Earth artificial satellites. Separately, the solar and terrestrial radiation sources are taken into account and the Poynting-Robertson effect is treated, too. The magnitude of the disturbing forces is compared to that of the atmospheric drag and relevant effective heights are computed. The components of the disturbing forces are determined and the changes of the elements are obtained from the planetary Lagrange-Gauss equations.