Extension of the software toolkit GROOPS by satellite laser ranging

The Gravity Recovery Object Oriented Programming System (GROOPS) is meanwhile a highly sophisticated and well accepted tool in the scientific community which enables the user to perform core geodetic tasks. The key features of the software include gravity field recovery from satellite and terrestrial data, the processing of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) constellations and ground station networks and the determination of satellite orbits from GNSS measurements. In the course of the continuous development of GROOPS, we will extend the software by satellite laser ranging (SLR) as an additional feature. Satellite laser ranging offers the possibility to measure distances from low earth orbiting (LEO) satellites with an accuracy in the mm and cm range. A major advantage of this observation technique is that only a passive space technology, called laser retroreflectors are required onboard. Satellite laser ranging can be used as a tool for independent validation of precise determined LEO satellite orbits. Thus, through the extension of GROOPS by SLR we will also be able to perform a validation of our own determined satellite orbits, which we publish regularly. In this work we will give an overview of the integration of the SLR processing, and how corrections regarding the satellites centre of mass, antenna offsets, laser retroreflector offsets and satellite/station specific range biases are handled. Additionally, we will show the orbit validation results of several satellite missions with laser retroreflectors onboard.