ERS-1 Hochpraezisionsbahnen fuer die Meeresforschung Abschlussbericht

The oceanographic objective of the project is the determination of the sea surface topography relative to the geoid. In order to take advantage of the high accuracy of the ERS-1 radar altimeter (< 10 cm) for the analysis of the small oceanographic signals it is necessary to calculate very precise ERS-1 orbits, especially in the radial component. Therefore a suitable PRARE tracking network should be established in the oceanographic investigation areas (South Atlantic and Indian Ocean) to acquire the necessary observations for the ERS-1 orbit determination. Because of the failure in the PRARE space segment in the beginning of the ERS-1 emission, the operation of the PRARE network and the generation of precision ERS-1 orbits for the oceanography could not be performed. Within the scope of the project 'short arc' software for the precise ERS-1 orbit determination was developed and tested. The results generated with simulated PRARE range and doppler observations prove the high quality of the calculated orbits with an accuracy of a few centimeters for the radial components. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F93B1406+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Forschung und Technologie (BMFT), Bonn (Germany)DEGerman