The Role of Laser Ranging for Calibrating Jason-1: The Corsica Tracking Campaign

Abstract

The French Transportable Laser Ranging System (FTLRS), a highly transportable Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) instrument, was set up in Corsica (from January to September 2002) for participating to the JASON-1 altimeter verification phase. In addition to the tracking of oceanographic satellite missions and in order to perform an accurate positioning, the FTLRS also acquired laser ranging data on geodetic satellites, STARLETTE and STELLA essentially.

The paper describes the analysis strategy mainly based on the use of a short-arc orbit technique to compute accurate 1 cm local orbits, and then the geocentric positioning (2–3 mm relative to GPS). Finally, we established the JASON-1 absolute calibration value, based on 9 SLR short-arcs (between cycles 1 and 26), at 108.2 ± 8.7 mm; the 10-day repeatability is of 26.1 mm showing that a great accuracy has been reached.

Keywords:

• space geodesy and tracking techniques
• radar-altimetry (calibration)
• satellite laser ranging

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge colleagues from OCA, CNES and IGN who contributed to the FTLRS campaign at Ajaccio, Corsica. We also want to acknowledge the Aspretto marine and air base for their welcoming support. The authors are grateful to Z. Altamimi (IGN/ENSG/LAREG) for his help on the use of the CATREF software.

The JASON-1 CAL/VAL experiment was supported by the CNES. Permanent GPS antenna is supported by the IGN, and the FTLRS is supported by the CNES, the INSU, the IGN, and the OCA.

Notes

*From which 15 calibration passes.

*CNES POEs (from the DORIS and SLR datasets).