A critical analysis of a recent test of the Lense-Thirring effect with the LAGEOS satellites

Abstract

We discuss the impact of the present-day uncertainties in the recently released CHAMP and/or GRACE Earth gravity models on the measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect with the nodes of the LAGEOS satellites. Also the role of the secular variations Jdots of the even zonal harmonics is quantitatively assessed via numerical simulations and tests. While the systematic error due to the static part of the geopotential ranges from 4% (EIGEN-GRACE02S) to 9% (GGM02S), the impact of the Jdots amounts to 13% over 11 years. This yields a 19% 1-sigma total error in the test recently performed with EIGEN-GRACE02S.

LaTeX2e, 24 pages, 8 tables, 2 figures. This submission replaces the previous one, which was clearly wrong. I apologize for the confusion generated. This version is the one published in J. of Geodesy

References in corpus (3)

• On the reliability of the so far performed tests for measuring the Lense-Thirring effect with the LAGEOS satellites
• The impact of the new Earth gravity models on the measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect with a new satellite
• Towards a few-percent measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect with the LAGEOS and LAGEOS II satellites?

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Phenomenology of the Lense-Thirring effect in the Solar System
• Evidence of the gravitomagnetic field of Mars
• Low-Earth Orbit Determination from Gravity Gradient Measurements
• An assessment of the measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect in the Earth gravity field, in reply to: ``On the measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect using the nodes of the LAGEOS satellites, in reply to ``On the reliability of the so far performed tests for measuring the Lense-Thirring effect with the LAGEOS satellites'' by L. Iorio,'' by I. Ciufolini and E. Pavlis
• Conservative evaluation of the uncertainty in the LAGEOS-LAGEOS II Lense-Thirring test
• Gravitomagnetic effects in Kerr-de Sitter space-time
• Advances in the measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect with planetary motions in the field of the Sun
• Perspectives in measuring the PPN parameters beta and gamma in the Earth's gravitational fields with the CHAMP/GRACE models