An improved analytical model for the orbital motion of the Martian satellites

The original model of Sinclair (1972) has been improved by increasing the accuracy of the terms describing the secular and periodic perturbations. The perturbations due to the tesseral harmonics of the Mars gravitational field have been added as well as the short-period solar perturbations and many other smaller terms. The more important second-order perturbations have been evaluated and included in the model. A comparison with a numerical integration shows the improved model is accurate to better than 100 m in the position of both satellites for a time interval of at least 60 days.