Satellite ephemeris prediction for the Earth orbiting satellites

In this paper, a high-fidelity satellite orbit propagator, namely the Satellite Precise Orbit Propagator (SPOP), is developed for the Earth orbiting satellites. The SPOP numerically integrates the perturbed two-body differential equations of motion in the Earth Mean Equator and Equinox of 2000 (EME2000/J2000) reference frame using Cowell’s formulation and explicit Runge–Kutta class of integrator with the fixed time step size. Various perturbing forces are included in the numerical propagator such as a simple two-body problem up to J_6 terms for the academic purpose, full force gravitational field model using the spherical harmonics for the high precision orbit propagation in view of the commercial use, atmospheric drag, third-body gravity, solar radiation pressure, Earth radiation pressure due to albedo, and relativistic effect correction. In addition, SPOP also has the feature to predict the satellite ephemeris and orbit products using the NORAD compatible two-line element (TLE) through SGP4/SDP4 analytical propagator.