Efficient satellite orbit determination algorithm

Satellites as they cross the night sky look like moving stars, which can be accurately tracked by an observer with binoculars as well as by giant radars and large cameras. In this paper, the iterated extended Kalman filter (IEKF) is applied to the problem of satellite orbit determination for a low altitude (300 km), nearly circular (e=0.0003), orbit with an inclination of 50/spl deg/. The satellite is subject to significant perturbing accelerations. The performance, accuracy, efficiency, estimation errors, and prediction errors of the algorithm are calculated using actual satellite tracking data obtained from ground based radars.