Atmosphere Model

Orekit Python Wrapper usage
1

Hello Orekit community!

I’m curious what is the most used or best model for the atmosphere. I am currently using the NRLMSISE00 method to model the atmosphere for orbit propagation, but I’m wondering if there is a better model in general, or if there is a specific model that is recommended for orbit propagation.

Thanks,
Olivia

2

Hello,

The question comes back often here :grinning:
You can find some answers here for instance.

Best,
Romain.

3

Thanks @Serrof!

I see on the post you linked to that JB2008 might be better to use for orbits above 120km. Are there any examples on how to implement JB2008? The only post I saw was from 2 years ago and on that post they said there were no implimentations for JB2008InputParameters. I would like to try using the JB2008 method rather than my current method to see the differences but I’m a little confused on how to implement it. Any help would be great!

Thanks,
Olivia

4

Hi @ojbBishop,

I was not there 2 years ago but it seems that the JB2008InputParameters interface has been implemented by the JB2008SpaceEnvironmentData class in the 11.2 release by Louis Aucouturier (many thanks to him).

I never used it but according to JB2008SpaceEnvironmentData class description, you need the solar indices data stored within the SOLFSMY file as well as the geomagnetic storm indices available in the DTCFILE file. Finally and to cite de description once again : “the parsing of the solar indices files the parsing are handled by the SOLFSMYDataLoader DtcDataLoader classes”.

Cheers,
Vincent

5

Another important information. Please note that spaceenvironment only provides public historic data. In other words, data for future predictions are not available.