Improved Satellite Drag Coefficient Calculations from Orbital Measurements of Energy Accommodation

SigniŽ cant discoveries about gas–surface interactions that havebeen made in 90 years of laboratory experiments and 30 years of orbital measurements are reviewed. This information is used to improve the calculation of drag coefŽ cients for satellites in low Earth orbit for several different satellite shapes and orientations by inserting the appropriate parameters in theoretical models of the drag coefŽ cient. The drag coefŽ cients so calculated provide increased consistency in orbital measurements of atmospheric density by satellites of different shapes near 200 km, where adsorbed atomic oxygen dominates the interaction and causes the energy accommodation coefŽ cient to approach unity. It is essential to improve the numerical value of the drag coefŽ cient so that the density of the neutral thermosphere can be inferred from satellite drag to better than the present 15% uncertainty. The key to this improvement is the calculationof drag coefŽ cients from parametersmeasured in space, rather than from those measured in the laboratory under conditions very different from the space environment.

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