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A separable potential in triaxially ellipsoidal coordinates satisfying the laplace equation

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Abstract

This paper derives the most general potential function which allows separation of the hamilton-Jacobi equation in orthogonal coordinates and which satisfies the Laplace equation. The resulting potential is then specialized to the case of interest for near-Earth satellites, where the proper behavior of the potential at infinity is obtained and singularities in the region of interest are eliminated. The Vinti potential is found as a special case.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MIT Measurement Systems Laboratory, Cambridge, Mass., USA

    Stephen J. Madden Jr.

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  1. Stephen J. Madden Jr.
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Additional information

This paper was prepared under the sponsorship of the Electronics Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through NASA Grant NGR-22-009-262.

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Madden, S.J. A separable potential in triaxially ellipsoidal coordinates satisfying the laplace equation. Celestial Mechanics 2, 217–227 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01229496

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01229496

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