Determination of Satellite Orbits from Radar Data

An optimum method for determining satellite orbits from radar data is presented in this report. Offering a good combination of speed and accuracy, the method makes use of orbit inclination and orbit elements in the plane, and proceeds with a differential correction of the orbit elements. Rapid, accurate methods of computing orbit elements are required to predict satellite positions for acquisition by other radars at points later along the orbit. In some cases the data are limited to a single pass over the observing station. The dynamical method is described in detail, and its accuracy is compared with those of two other methods: the purely geometrical, and the least-squares geometrical. By this optimum method the computing time, including the differential correction time, is 1 minute. Without differential correction, the rough determination takes from 10 to 20 seconds with approximately 5 miles positional uncertainty.