Routine operational and high-precision orbit determination of envisat Original Research Article

ESAʹs Earth observation satellite Envisat was successfully launched on 1 March 2002 by an Ariane-5 launcher, and ESOC immediately took over the task of determining and predicting the orbit using S-band tracking data, and optimising the manoeuvre sequence to bring the spacecraft into an orbit accurately phased with ERS-2. On-board, Envisat carries, among others, a radar altimeter, a DORIS instrument and a laser retro-reflector array (SLR). Data from these instruments are being used at ESOC for high-precision orbit determination, for verification of the routine orbit determination and for cross-comparison with orbits computed on-board by the DORIS navigator and with those delivered with the Envisat products. This paper presents the first consolidated results obtained for Envisat routine and high-precision orbit determination. All orbit determination and control activities were performed with the software package NAPEOS, which was developed in-house.