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ORBITAL PERTURBATIONS
Orbital perturbation – difference between real orbit and Keplerian
Orbit obtained from two body equations of motion

(Longitudinal Changes)

(Inclination Changes)

The earth is neither a perfect sphere nor a perfect ellipse

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 Due to the position of the Mascons and equatioral bulges,

(Without any thruster firings required)

 Greyard geosynchronous orbit-which is the orbit to which the
satellite is raised once the satellite ceases to be useful

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 Due to nonsphericity of the earth

• The stable points are neither exactly 180 apart,
• Nor the stable and unstable points precisely 90 apart

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 Motion of the satellite has significant impact on its

performance

(Sun Transit Outage)

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Solstice: It is the time when the sun reaches its

highest or lowest point at noon, resulting in the
shortest and longest days of the year. The
longest day of the year is an example of the
summer

Equinox: when the plane of Earth's

equator passes through the center of the
Sun's disk, which occurs twice each year,
around 21 March and 23 September.

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(Sun Transit Outage)

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Doppler Shift
 To a stationary observer, the frequency of a moving radio transmitter
varies with the transmitter’s velocity relative to the observer
 Caused by relative motion between the satellite and earth station

Note:
 If the transmitter is moving away from the receiver, then Vt
is negative
 For GSO, this is negligible
 But for LEO a frequency tracking receiver is needed to
mitigate Doppler shift

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