Re: Decay over aircraft in the Pacific.

Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Tue, 27 Aug 1996 19:01:15 +0100

In message <3222C212.1637@tt-tech.se>, "Bjoern Gimle@tt-tech.se"
<bjorn@tt-tech.se> writes
> ...<Mega-snip>...
>Tonight, I will post MM charts and SkyMap stereographic space views
>of the tracks of #23797 and #24281 on my www pages, but I think we
>could use more accurate time (and date!) of the aircraft observation,
>and the position relative to the aircraft, and the results of a
>(SatEvo?) integration matching the last four or so elsets,
>to settle this.
> ...

Ok - you asked for it..

Radgua 33 SL-12 r2
------------------

In my final analysis, I did not try to bridge the a long interval
between OIG elsets dated 96232.141 and 96234.188. Instead, I simply
took the 96234.188 elset and tweaked the ndot term to give the same
equator crossing time as the 96234.256 elset, the only later elset we
have for this object. The resulting evolution...

Raduga 33 SL-12 r2                               1298 x 90
1 23797U 96010D   96234.18818470 1.16003375  46580+0  14170-2 0 93227
2 23797  47.7434 197.2551 0853515  79.7695 289.7368 14.59757501  5539
Raduga 33 SL-12 r2                               1192 x 90
1 23797U 96010D   96234.25611252 1.26617896  58703+0  14718-2 0 93222
2 23797  47.7391 196.9295 0784923  80.0748 288.6862 14.76207011  5545
Raduga 33 SL-12 r2                               1080 x 90
1 23797U 96010D   96234.32324321 1.40608723  81299+0  15425-2 0 93225
2 23797  47.7328 196.5996 0710612  80.3842 287.5657 14.94096724  5559
Raduga 33 SL-12 r2                               958 x 90
1 23797U 96010D   96234.38951682 1.59776745  11852+1  16326-2 0 93227
2 23797  47.7257 196.2650 0628592  80.6982 286.3520 15.13930928  5569
Raduga 33 SL-12 r2                               822 x 90
1 23797U 96010D   96234.45484794 1.88948180  18891+1  17646-2 0 93222
2 23797  47.7198 195.9248 0535446  81.0175 285.0022 15.36552636  5571
Raduga 33 SL-12 r2                               662 x 90
1 23797U 96010D   96234.51909498 2.47868049  50329+1  20268-2 0 93229
2 23797  47.7101 195.5782 0422976  81.3429 283.4228 15.64036073  5586
Raduga 33 SL-12 r2                               437 x 90
1 23797U 96010D   96234.58192192 4.32893606  22833+2  27180-2 0 93224
2 23797  47.7000 195.2231 0260951  81.6765 281.2737 16.03891233  5592

If decay occurred at or near the following perigee, it would have been
at about 96234.60 (= August 21.60) as per my SatEvo decay list #12 which
I posted here on August 24. However, I'm not totally happy with the way
SatEvo grappled with this object - SatEvo tended to predict too early a
decay over the final few days. However, I'm certain that it
couldn't/shouldn't have lasted until the 22nd.

Soyuz r
-------

Here I iterated the n and ndot terms in an elset dated 96233.554 to fit
(to with 0.02s) the equator crossings indicated by elsets dated
96234.164 and 96234.407. The resulting evolution satisfies an equator
crossing at 96234.225 to within 0.6s and predicts an equator crossing
only 2.1s earlier than that indicated by the final OIG elset dated 
96234.529. The evolution over the final revs runs ...

Soyuz r                                          165 x 156
1 24281U 96047B   96234.22536477  .08510125  72189-1  47361-3 0 90245
2 24281  51.6141 155.1457 0006771 112.9967 247.0757 16.41997032   601
Soyuz r                                          162 x 154
1 24281U 96047B   96234.28620108  .10069261  10574+0  44533-3 0 90245
2 24281  51.6138 154.8004 0006087 113.2547 246.8112 16.43121328   611
Soyuz r                                          157 x 151
1 24281U 96047B   96234.34699157  .12474019  17184+0  41051-3 0 90241
2 24281  51.6134 154.4547 0005316 113.5129 246.5429 16.44479880   627
Soyuz r                                          152 x 146
1 24281U 96047B   96234.40772512  .16751870  33517+0  38590-3 0 90244
2 24281  51.6129 154.1087 0004414 113.7715 246.2748 16.46225739   634
Soyuz r                                          145 x 141
1 24281U 96047B   96234.46838128  .26964395  98395+0  38508-3 0 90249
2 24281  51.6123 153.7620 0003273 114.0306 246.0037 16.48765473   644
Soyuz r                                          128 x 127
1 24281U 96047B   96234.52890278 1.13528264  23168+2  63090-3 0 90240
2 24281  51.6111 153.4143 0001381 114.2904 245.7240 16.54567712   658

Again, if decay occurred near the next perigee, it would have been at 
96234.55 (=August 21.55). Or, as Mike suggests, it might already have
decayed on the previous rev.

Does this help?
Alan
-- 
 Alan Pickup | COSPAR site 2707:  55d53m48.7s N   3d11m51.2s W  156m asl
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