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BUG: accuracy of sgp4 orbits #79

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jklenzing opened this issue Apr 21, 2022 · 1 comment
Open

BUG: accuracy of sgp4 orbits #79

jklenzing opened this issue Apr 21, 2022 · 1 comment
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@jklenzing
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jklenzing commented Apr 21, 2022

Describe the bug
When generating an orbit with sgp4, the expected altitude may be off by up to 10s of km for LEO orbits.

To Reproduce

import pysat
sat = pysat.Instrument('missions', 'sgp4', inclination=5, alt_periapsis=400)
sat.load(2019, 1)

Expected behavior
The expected orbit is circular at 400 km altitude. The mean altitude and geodetic altitude are low.

Screenshots
alt_hist

Desktop (please complete the following information):

  • OS: Mac OS X 11.6.5
  • Version: python 3.8.11
  • pysatMissions rc 0.3.0

Additional context
Potential sources

  • mismatch of gravity / earth mass constants in pysatMissions, sgp4, geospacepy
  • mismatch of earth radius assumptions in packages
  • keplerian orbit calculations do not consider an ellipsoidal earth
  • usage of WGS72
@jklenzing jklenzing added the bug Something isn't working label May 18, 2022
@jklenzing
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After running tests with skyfield support (see #106), the resulting lat / lon / alt match within 5-6 decimal places. The location of the error probably lies in the assumptions in the methods.orbits code.

@jklenzing jklenzing added this to the 0.4.0 Release milestone May 31, 2023
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