LEO intermediary propagation as a feasible alternative to Brouwer’s gravity solution

The performance of Brouwer’s gravity solution is compared with Deprit’s second-order radial intermediary. Taking the main problem of the artificial satellite as the test model, that is perturbations are limited to the effects of the second zonal harmonic, it is demonstrated that the intermediary solution provides an efficient alternative for the analytical propagation of low earth orbits in a range determined by non-impact orbits with eccentricities below one tenth.