GRAVSAT/GEOPAUSE covariance analysis including geopotential aliasing

A conventional covariance analysis for the GRAVSAT/GEOPAUSE mission is described in which the uncertainties of approximately 200 parameters, including the geopotential coefficients to degree and order 12, are estimated over three different tracking intervals. The estimated orbital uncertainties for both GRAVSAT and GEOPAUSE reach levels more accurate than presently available. The adjusted measurement bias errors approach the mission goal. Survey errors in the low centimeter range are achieved after ten days of tracking. The ability of the mission to obtain accuracies of geopotential terms to (12, 12) one to two orders of magnitude superior to present accuracy levels is clearly shown. A unique feature of this report is that the aliasing structure of this (12, 12) field is examined. It is shown that uncertainties for unadjusted terms to (12, 12) still exert a degrading effect upon the adjusted error of an arbitrarily selected term of lower degree and order. Finally, the distribution of the aliasing from the unestimated uncertainty of a particular high degree and order geopotential term upon the errors of all remaining adjusted terms is listed in detail.