Determination of the gravitational coefficient of the Earth from near‐Earth satellites

Laser range, doppler and altimeter data collected from 14 near-Earth satellites have been combined to determine the value of the geocentric gravitational coefficient (GM) of the Earth. A long-arc solution using 3 years of laser range data to Lageos was used in a separate determination in which the effects of general relativity were investigated. The value of GM (including the mass of the atmosphere) was determined to be 398600.4405 km³/sec² when all corrections for general relativity are taken into account. The uncertainty (1-σ) in the value of GM is estimated to be 0.001 km³/sec².

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