caa a22 4500 445385782 CHVBK 20180317143032.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20110601xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10714-011-1151-4 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10714-011-1151-4 Iorio Lorenzo Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca (M.I.U.R.), Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (F.R.A.S.), Viale Unità di Italia 68, 70125, Bari (BA), Italy aut How accurate is the cancelation of the first even zonal harmonic of the geopotential in the present and future LAGEOS-based Lense-Thirring tests? [Elektronische Daten] [Lorenzo Iorio] The strategy followed so far in the performed or proposed tests of the general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect in the gravitational field of the Earth with laser-ranged satellites of LAGEOS type relies upon the cancelation of the disturbing huge precessions induced by the first even zonal harmonic coefficient J 2 of the multipolar expansion of the Newtonian part of the terrestrial gravitational potential by means of suitably designed linear combinations of the nodes Ω of more than one spacecraft. Actually, such a removal does depend on the accuracy with which the coefficients of the combinations adopted can be realistically known. Uncertainties of the order of 2cm in the semimajor axes a and 0.5milliarcseconds in the inclinations I of LAGEOS and LAGEOS II, entering the expression of the coefficient c 1 of the combination of their nodes used so far, yield an uncertainty δc 1=1.30× 10−8. It gives an imperfectly canceled J 2 signal of 10.8milliarcseconds per year corresponding to 23% of the Lense-Thirring signature. Uncertainties of the order of 10-30microarcseconds in the inclinations yield δc 1=7.9× 10−9 which corresponds to an uncanceled J 2 signature of 6.5milliarcseconds per year, i.e. 14% of the Lense-Thirring signal. Concerning a future LAGEOS-LAGEOS II-LARES combination with coefficients k 1 and k 2, the same uncertainties in a and the less accurate uncertainties in I as before yield δk 1=1.1× 10−8, δk 2=2× 10−9; they imply a residual J 2 combined precession of 14.7milliarcseconds per year corresponding to 29% of the Lense-Thirring trend. Uncertainties in the inclinations at ≈ 10microarcseconds level give δk 1=5× 10−9, δk 2=2× 10−9; the uncanceled J 2 effect is 7.9milliarcseconds per year, i.e. 16% of the relativistic effect. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 2011 Experimental tests of gravitational theories nationallicence Satellite orbits nationallicence Harmonics of the gravity potential field nationallicence Geopotential theory and determination nationallicence General Relativity and Gravitation Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 43/6(2011-06-01), 1697-1706 0001-7701 43:6<1697 2011 43 10714 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-011-1151-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-011-1151-4 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Iorio Lorenzo Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca (M.I.U.R.), Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (F.R.A.S.), Viale Unità di Italia 68, 70125, Bari (BA), Italy aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- General Relativity and Gravitation Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 43/6(2011-06-01), 1697-1706 0001-7701 43:6<1697 2011 43 10714 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer