On the impact of the atmosheric drag on the LARES mission
Abstract
The goal of the recently approved space-based LARES mission is to measure the general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect in the gravitational field of the spinning Earth at a repeatedly claimed 1% accuracy by combining its node Omega with those of the existing LAGEOS and LAGEOS II laser-ranged satellites. In this paper we show that, in view of the lower altitude of LARES (h=1450 km) with respect to LAGEOS and LAGEOS II (h\approx 6000 km), the cross-coupling between the effect of the atmospheric drag, both neutral and charged, on the inclination of LARES and its classical node precession due to the Earth's oblateness may induce a 3-9% year^-1 systematic bias on the total relativistic precession. Since its extraction from the data will take about 5-10 years, such a perturbing effect may degrade the total accuracy of the test, especially in view of the large uncertainties in modeling the drag force.
- Publication:
-
Acta Physica Polonica B
- Pub Date:
- April 2010
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.0809.3564
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0809.3564
- Bibcode:
- 2010AcPPB..41.4753I
- Keywords:
-
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology;
- Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics;
- Physics - Geophysics;
- Physics - Space Physics
- E-Print:
- Latex2e, 19 pages, 2 tables, no figures. Final version to appear in Acta Physica Polonica (AcPP).