Patent ID: 8120529

Claim:
A method for predicting satellite orbit information, comprising: i) obtaining a broadcast orbital ephemeris of the satellite; ii) generating initial earth orientation parameters (EOP) from historical observation records based on an earth orientation model; iii) generating initial orbital dynamic parameters and an initial set of satellite initial conditions; iv) iteratively estimating earth orientation parameters (EOP), orbital dynamic parameters, and satellite initial conditions, using a satellite dynamics model, the broadcast orbital ephemeris, the initial earth orientation parameters (EOP), the initial orbital dynamic parameters, and the initial set of satellite initial conditions until convergence is obtained; v) obtaining predicted orbits by propagating forward in time, through the satellite dynamics model, the estimated earth orientation parameters (EOP), the estimated orbital dynamic parameters, and the estimated satellite initial conditions; vi) converting the predicted orbits to earth-centered-earth-fixed (ECEF) coordinates using the estimated earth orientation parameters (EOP); and vii) storing the converted predicted orbits.