Some comments on the recent results about the measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect in the gravitational field of the Earth with the LAGEOS and LAGEOS II satellites

Abstract

With quantitative numerical simulations we show that the secular variations of the even zonal harmonics of the geopotential do affect the measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect with the nodes of LAGEOS and LAGEOS II at a \sim 14% level. Thus, the 1-sigma total error in the performed test with the 2nd generation CHAMP-only EIGEN2 Earth gravity model amounts to 51%, contrary to 18% claimed by Ciufolini.

arXiv commentLatex2e, 2 tables, 1 figure, 22 pages, 51 references. It refers to the recent paper: I. Ciufolini, Frame Dragging and Lense-Thirring Effect, Gen. Rel.Grav., 36(10), 2257-2270, 2004. Rewritten version. Quantitative estimates of the impact of the secular variations of the even zonals

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• Gravitomagnetic Effects
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