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  3. A Tapestry of Orbits
  • Cited by 23
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
December 2009
Print publication year:
1992
Online ISBN:
9780511564222
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511564222
Subjects:
Atmospheric Science and Meteorology, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, Cosmology, Relativity and Gravitation
Information

Book description

Satellites as they cross the night sky look like moving stars, which can be accurately tracked by an observer with binoculars as well as by giant radars and large cameras. These observations help to determine the satellite's orbit, which is sensitive to the drag of the upper atmosphere and to any irregularities in the gravity field of the Earth. Analysis of the orbit can be used to evaluate the density of the upper atmosphere and to define the shape of the Earth. Desmond King-Hele was the pioneer of this technique of orbit analysis, and this book tells us how the research began, before the launch of Sputnik in 1957. For thirty years King-Hele and his colleagues at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, developed and applied the technique to reveal much about the Earth and air at a very modest cost. In the 1960s the upper-atmosphere density was thoroughly mapped out for 100 to 2000 km, revealing immense variation of density with solar activity and between day and night. In the 1970s and 1980s a picture of the upper-atmosphere winds emerged, and the profile of the pear-shaped Earth was accurately charted. The number of satellites now orbiting the earth is over 5000. This book is the story of how this inexpensive research of their orbits developed to yield a rich harvest of knowledge about the Earth and its atmosphere, in a scientific narrative that is enlivened with many personal experiences.

Reviews

‘... King-Hele skilfully entwines a thorough, well illustrated and well referenced review of his scientific speciality with revealing snatches of autobiography... he has presented us with a first-class cocktail of science and life.’

Source: Nature

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