Decay of orbits due to the drag of rotating oblate atmosphere

In the present work, the orbit prediction with the KS regular variables was obtained numerically. Perturbations of an artificial satellite due to the non-aspherecity of the Earth and the atmospheric drag are considered. The Earth's zonal harmonic terms are included up to J6, and a model of drag with an oblate rotating atmosphere was obtained. The variation of the rotational velocity of the atmosphere is taken into account. The theory obtained has been applied to study the orbital decay of the near-Earth Indian Satellite RS-1. We compared our results with those of Sharma and Mani [1985. Study of RS-1 orbital decay with KS differential equations. Indian J. Pure Appl. Math. 16(7), 833–842] and Sehnal and Pospisilova [1991. Lifetime of the Rohini a satellite. Bull. Astron. Inst. Czechosl. 42, 295–299].