Precise orbit determination is of central importance for many applications of geodesy and earth science. The challenge is to determine satellite orbits in an absolute sense at the centimeter or even sub-centimeter level, and at the millimeter or even sub-millimeter level in a relative sense. Four constellations of GNSS satellites are available and numerous position-critical missions (e.g. altimetry, gravity, SAR and SLR missions) are currently in orbit. Altogether, outstanding data are available offering new opportunities to push orbit determination to the limit and to explore new applications.
This session aims to make accessible the technical challenges of orbit determination and modelling to the wider community and to quantify the nature of the impact of dynamics errors on the various applications. Contributions are solicited from, but not limited to, the following areas: (1) precise orbit determination and validation; (2) satellite surface force modelling; (3) advances in modelling atmospheric density and in atmospheric gravity; (4) advances in modelling earth radiation fluxes and their interaction with space vehicles; (5) analysis of changes in geodetic parameters/earth models resulting from improved force modelling/orbit determination methods; (6) improvements in observable modelling for all tracking systems, e.g. SLR, DORIS, GNSS and their impact on orbit determination; (7) advances in combining the different tracking systems for orbit determination; (8) the impact of improved clock modelling methods/space clocks on precise orbit determination; (9) advances in modelling satellite attitude; (10) simulation studies for the planned co-location of geodetic techniques in space mission GENESIS.