Effect of Earth’s oblateness on the track of low Earth orbit spacecraft

Two reference systems of geographical latitude (geocentric and geodetic) are considered in order to study the effect of the Earth’s oblateness on the satellite track while it moves along the low earth orbit. The developed computer models are used for analyzing the movement of the sub-satellite point on the Earth’s surface with respect to each of these reference systems. The largest possible differences in the sub-satellite point coordinates are estimated in the two systems according to the parameters of the satellite orbit.

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