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Abstract

Iterative methods for inverse referencing from mean orbital elements or osculating position and velocity, accounting for all necessary orbital perturbations with respect to given nadir pixel size, are described. [Inverse referencing means that the geodetic coordinates of a point on the surface are given and the corresponding image coordinates (scan line number and pixel number) are obtained from satellite orbital elements or coordinates.] The idea is to treat a pixel like a satellite tracking station on the ground. This permits the use of existing software for the computation of satellite ephemerides and orbit determination. The time of culmination of a satellite over the pixel and the off-nadir angle at that moment have been computed. Two variants for such a computation have been tested. Numerical results for the NOAA-N meteorological satellites and ERS-1 are presented. The present state of our software for inverse referencing should fulfil ordinary requirements posed by meteorologists. For NOAA-N satellites, the accuracy achieved roughly the nadir pixel size. The main obstacle to an increase in accuracy is the low quality of the mean orbital elements usually available. For ERS-1, the accuracy may achieve a level of 100 m. A software package, containing versions of the FORTRAN 77 programs PIXPO 3, PIXPO 4 and PIXPOSC, for various data types, including US-2 line or TBUS mean elements or a state vector, is available for scientific exchange. © 1994.