Perturbative effects of antenna radiation reaction on artificial satellite orbit

The actual orbital trajectory of an artificial satellite is very sensitive to a large number of disturbances, whose effects add to the main force exerted by Earthʼs gravitational field. Perturbations caused by solar radiation pressure, albedo, the Moon and the Sun gravitational fields are well understood and have been taken into account already. By contrast, to the best of our knowledge, the radiation reaction force on the satellite caused by antenna radiation was not considered so far, which is done in the present contribution. We study the acceleration on the satellite caused by radiation reaction originated from the antenna radiation, taking into account the antenna radiation pattern. It is shown that for typical communication satellites the perturbation on the satellite orbit due to the power radiated by the transmitting antenna amounts to a non-negligible effect on the order of 10 − 9 m / s 2 .