Seasonal Air and Water Mass Redistribution Effects on LAGEOS and Starlette, 1987-09

Item — Box: 1, Folder: 35

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

Articles, photographs, documents, and artifacts pertaining to LAGEOS.

Dates

Creation: 1987-09

Creator

From the Collection: United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (1958-) (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research in the Archives & Special Collections reading room. Handling guidelines and use restrictions will be communicated and enforced by archives staff members.

Extent

From the Collection: 1.5 Linear feet (2 boxes.)

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Additional Description

Abstract

We computed zonal geopotimal coefficients from average seasonal variations in global air and water mass distributions. These coefficients are used to predict the seasonal variations of LAGEOS' and Starlette's orbital node, delta Omega, and the seasonal delta J3 for Starlette. A comparison of these predictions with the observed values indicates that air pressure and, to a lesser extent, water storage may be responsible for a large portion of the currently unmodeled variation in the earth's gravity field.