Title:

                    Luni-solar effects of geosynchronous orbits at the critical inclination
 Authors:

                    Delhaise, Fabienne; Morbidelli, Alessandro
 Affiliation:

                    AAFUNDP, Namur, Belgium ABFUNDP, Namur, Belgium
 Journal:

                    Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy (ISSN 0923-2958), vol. 57, no. 1-2, p. 155-173
                    (CeMDA Homepage)
 Publication Date:

                    10/1993
 Category:

                    Astrophysics
 Origin:

                    STI
 NASA/STI Keywords:

                    EARTH-MOON SYSTEM, GRAVITATIONAL EFFECTS, LUNAR GRAVITATION, ORBIT
                    CALCULATION, SATELLITE ORBITS, SOLAR GRAVITATION, SOLAR TERRESTRIAL
                    INTERACTIONS, SYNCHRONOUS SATELLITES, GEOPOTENTIAL, HAMILTONIAN
                    FUNCTIONS, INCLINATION, LIBRATION, ORBITAL ELEMENTS, ORBITAL RESONANCES
                    (CELESTIAL MECHANICS)
 Bibliographic Code:

                    1993CeMDA..57..155D
 

                                            Abstract

The luni-solar effects of a geosynchronous artificial satellite orbiting near the critical inclination is investigated. To tackle this
four-degrees-of-freedom problem, a preliminary exploration separately analyzing each harmonic formed by a combination of the
satellite longitude of the node separately analyzing each harmonic formed by a combination of the satellite longitude of the node
and the Moon longitude of the node is opportune. This study demonstrates that the dynamics induced by these harmonics does not
show resonance phenomena. In a second approach, the number of degrees of freedom is halved by averaging the total Hamiltonian
over the two non-resonant angular variables. A semi-numerical method can now be applied as was done when considering solely
the inhomogeneity of the geopotential (see Delhaise et Henrard, 1992). Approximate surfaces of section are constructed in the
plane of the inclination and argument of perigee. The main effects of the Sun and Moon attractions compared to the terrestrial
attraction alone are a strong increase in the amplitude of libration in inclination (from 0.6 deg to 3.2 deg) and a decrease of the
corresponding libration period (from the order of 200 years to the order of 20 years).