LAGEOS satellites germanium cube-corner-retroreflectors and the asymmetric reflectivity effect (Q1766781)

The modeling of the orbits of passive satellites has been one of the fundamental problem of space dynamics and physics research in the Earth environment in the last decades. The geodesy and geodynamics have reached new goals with the launches of the LAGEOS-series satellites (1976, 1992) and due to these missions some significant results have been reached in several fields, such as: 1) inter-station baselines recovery; 2) Earth rotation parameter determination; 3) Earth gravity field harmonic coefficients determination and many others results. One of the main perturbations discovered for both LAGEOS satellite orbits and still not yet explained from the physical point of view is the so-called asymmetry reflectivity effect. As was suggested by some authors, this perturbation effect is due to an unknown asymmetric reflectivity of the Sun visible radiation from the satellite hemispheres. Here the authorso explain the physical cause of this empirical effect by analysis of specular reflection of Sun visible radiation from the four germanium cube-corner-retroreflectors of the LAGEOS satellites. An analytic model is introduced and the results obtained are compared with the results found by use of the known empiric analytic model [G. Métris et al., Nongravitational effects and the LAGEOS eccentricity excitations, J. Geophys. Res. 102, No. B2, 2711--2729 (1997)].