Toward Accurate Physics-Based Specifications of Neutral Density using GNSS-Enabled Small Satellites | CU Experts

Satellite-atmosphere interactions cause large uncertainties in low-Earth; orbit determination and prediction. Thus, knowledge of and the ability; to predict the space environment, most notably thermospheric mass; density, are essential for operating satellites in this domain. Recent; progress has been made toward supplanting the existing empirical,; operational methods with physics-based data-assimilative models by; accounting for the complex relationship between external drivers such as; solar irradiance, Joule, and particle heating, and their response in the; upper atmosphere. Simultaneously, a new era of CubeSat constellations is; set to provide data with which to calibrate our upper-atmosphere models; at higher spatial resolution and temporal cadence. With this in mind, we; provide an initial method for converting precision orbit determination; (POD) solutions from global navigation satellite system (GNSS) enabled; CubeSats into timeseries of thermospheric mass density. This information; is then fused with a physics-based, data-assimilative technique to; provide calibrated model densities.

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