Estimation of the SGP4 Drag Term from Two Osculating Orbit States

A method for estimating the NORAD SGP4 atmospheric drag term from minimum osculating orbit states, i.e., two osculating orbits, is developed. The first osculating orbit state is converted into the NORAD TLE-type mean orbit state by iterative procedure. Then the converted TLE is propagated to the second orbit state using the SGP4 model with the incremental SGP4 drag term. The iterative orbit propagation procedure is finished when the difference of the two osculating semi-major axes between the propagated orbit and the given second orbit is minimized. In order to minimize the effect of the short-term variations of the osculating semi-major axis, the osculating argument of latitude of the second orbit is propagated to the same argument of latitude of the first orbit. The method is applied to the estimation of the NORAD-type TLE for the KOMPSAT-1 spacecraft. The SGP4 drag terms are estimated from both NORAD SGP4 orbit propagation and the numerical orbit propagation results. Variations of the estimated drag terms are analyzed for the KOMPSAT-1 satellite orbit determination results.