High accuracy orbit updates using angles-only data
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abstract
Accuracy assessment results have shown that Maui Space Surveillance Site metric data are of very high quality with some telescopes approaching the one arcsecond accuracy level. One arcsecond maps into 5m of 1-D position knowledge at a range of 1000 km; therefore, high accuracy angular observation data are highly effective in removing cross-track and along-track errors from low Earth orbit predictions. This paper presents real data results showing that orbit prediction errors can be reduced from the kilometer level to tens of meters using one pass of high accuracy optical data and sequential or batch estimation techniques. Efforts are underway to refine and automate this process at the Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing site.
