Analysis of solar pressure perturbation impacting on satellite attitude-orbit coupling

With the increasing precision of satellite geodesy, the precision of satellite orbit determination should be improved correspondingly. Currently, the orbit accuracy of Topex, Jason-1, Jason-2 and a series of marine geodetic satellites has already reached a centimeter level. Thus, the satellite dynamics model should also be further improved. Considering the solar array with regular rotation, simplifying the geometry of satellite as Boxing-Wing model which is common in high-precision orbit determination, the solar radiation pressure and moment of Topex satellite are calculated in orbit. Considering the situation of satellite attitude-orbit coupling, the changing of orbital semi-major axis and the satellite attitude caused by the solar pressure perturbation are analyzed. During the calculation of one orbital period, the effect by solar pressure for orbital semi-major axis is about 9cm, and for roll angle and pitch angle both are about 6 degrees, which should not be ignored in high-precision orbit calculations and attitude control.