Orbit Propagator Coefficients for Earth Orbiting Satellites

The orbit of GNSS ephemerides are provided in RINEX format at every 15min interval for next two days at IGU website on daily basis for public use. The extraction of position and velocity information of GNSS satellites at given time require separate algorithms which depend on precision of several universal constant parameters and many coordinate transformation. In this paper we have developed an algorithm to estimate finite number of satellite Orbit Propagator Coefficients (OPC) accounting full force perturbative forces. Based on these coefficients user can derive satellite position for the required time within given period time with good accuracy. In this paper firstly we have propagated the orbit of earth orbiting satellites using in-house developed full force model, subsequently estimated 23 numbers of OPC within propagation period. Finally we have compared the position derived from OPC with high-precise RINEX files of GNSS satellites and also with operational ephemerides for LEO satellites with very close match. The estimated OPC requires very less run-time for satellite position time unlike any high precise numerical propagator and therefore it can be utilised for satellite on-board navigation for micro/nano satellites.