San Juan Satellite Laser Ranging. Performance and Precission in the Observations
Abstract
In this paper we present the San Juan Fixed Station SLR N 7406 in Argentina, installed according to an international agreement between the Astronomical Observatory Félix Aguilar (OAFA, belonging to the National University of San Juan) and the National Astronomical Observatory of China (NAOC, belonging to the Chinese Academy of Sciences), which has been working continually since 2006. We give the perfomance reached by this new telescope in precission and number of observations, regarding the standard satellite LAGEOS, and we carry out a comparison with the values given by the International Laser Ranging System (ILRS) with other instruments of the SLR world net. The results of the LAGEOS observations show that our determinations of the pass average normal points rms are in the order of 12 millimeters and the pass number full rate are very abundant. The San Juan Station is now the strongest station in South America and is becoming more crucial to both the evolution of the Terrestrial Reference Frame and the SLR precission orbit determination of the world.
- Publication:
-
Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofisica Conference Series
- Pub Date:
- May 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009RMxAC..35..318P