Orbit Perturbations

 Orbital perturbations in satellite communication

• A Keplerian orbit is elliptical for the special case of an artificial satellite orbiting the earth. 

• However, the Keplerian orbit is ideal in the sense that it assumes that the earth is a uniform spherical mass and that the only force acting is the centrifugal force resulting from satellite motion balancing the gravitational pull of the earth. 

• In practice, other forces which can be significant are the gravitational forces of the sun and the moon and atmospheric drag. 

• The gravitational pulls of the sun and moon have a negligible effect on low-orbiting satellites, but they do affect satellites in the geostationary orbit. 

• Atmospheric drag, on the other hand, has a negligible effect on geostationary satellites but does affect low-orbiting earth satellites below about 1000 km.

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