D. Vokrouhlicky, and P. Farinella, 1995, "SPECULAR REFLECTION OF SUNLIGHT FROM WAVY OCEAN SURFACES AND THE ALBEDO EFFECT ON SATELLITE ORBITS. I. LAGEOS LONG-TERM ALBEDO PERTURBATIONS REASSESSED", AA, 298, 307.

ABSTRACT

We reanalyse the role of radiation pressure by sunlight specularly reflected from the Earth's ocean surface in generating long--term perturbations on the orbit of the laser--tracked satellite LAGEOS, by using the new theory for light reflection from a ``rough'' (or ``wavy'') surface developed in the previous paper of this series (Vokrouhlick\'y \& Farinella 1994a). The results of the more accurate method based on the application of geometrical optics to a distribution of surface elements with different orientations are compared to those based on a simple redefinition of the Fresnel reflection coefficient. In agreement with the estimates based on the dependence of the perturbing acceleration upon the satellite's mean anomaly, we show that the ``roughness'' of the ocean surface and the resulting finite--lobe reflection pattern cause a $10$--$40\%$ decrease of the magnitude of the long--term perturbations of LAGEOS' semimajor axis with respect to the ideal, mirror--like reflection case. However, the resulting perturbations are still large enough that radiation pressure by specularly reflected sunlight provides a major contribution to the observed LAGEOS along--track residuals. We also confirm that the secular effect on the nodal longitude of LAGEOS does not exceed $1$ milliarcsec/year, namely a few percent of the general--relativistic Lense--Thirring precession, and that long--periodic effects on the inclination can reach about 3 milliarcsec/year. In order to model in a reliable way all these effects, extensive data on the optical properties of ocean surfaces and the global cloud coverage would be required.


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