Abstract
Over 41 years of Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) provide a unique data set of distance measurements between Earth and Moon with ever increasing precision. A further step on the way to mm-accurate LLR analysis is refined modelling such as that of the gravitational effect from mass multipole moments of Earth and Moon on the lunar orbit and orientation. The previous multipole expansion used at the Institut für Erdmessung has now been extended to higher degrees. The corresponding geocenter-reflector ranges are used for the comparison of the different models. For mm-accurate analysis, the complete gravity field up to degree and order 5 for the Moon and up to degree and order 4 for the Earth should be considered. For the optimal combination of the LLR data, a variance component estimation with respect to the observatories was tested and the new estimation of two relativistic parameters (equivalence principle parameter and variation of the gravitational constant) was carried out.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Biskupek L, Müller J (2009) Lunar Laser Ranging and Earth Orientation. In: Soffel M, Capitaine N (eds) Proceedings of the “Journées 2008 Systèmes de référence spatio-temporels”. Lohrmann-Observatorium and Observatoire de Paris, pp 182–185
Biskupek L, Müller J, Hofmann F (2012) Determination of nutation coefficients from lunar laser ranging. In: Kenyon S, Pacino MC, Marti U, Sideris MG (eds) Geodesy for planet Earth. IAG Symposia, vol. 136. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp 521–525
Hofmann F, Müller J, Biskupek L (2010) Lunar laser ranging test of the Nordtvedt parameter and a possible variation in the gravitational constant. Astron Astrophys 522:L5
Konopliv A, Asmar S, Carranza E, Sjogren W, Yuan D (2001) Recent gravity models as a result of the lunar prospector mission. Icarus 150:1–18
Müller J, Williams JG, Turyshev SG (2008) Lunar laser ranging contributions to relativity and geodesy. In: Dittus H, Lämmerzahl C, Turyshev SG (eds) Lasers, clocks and drag-free control: exploration of relativistic gravity in space. Astrophys Space Sci Libr 349:457–472
Müller J, Biskupek L, Oberst J, Schreiber U (2009) Contribution of lunar laser ranging to realise geodetic reference systems. In: Drewes H, Sideris MG (eds) Geodetic reference frames. IAG Symposia, vol 134. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp 55–59
Müller J, Murphy TW, Schreiber U, Shelus PJ, Torre JM, Williams JG, Boggs DH, Bouquillon S, Francou G (2012a) Lunar laser ranging a tool for general relativity, lunar geophysics and earth science. J Geodes (submitted)
Müller J, Hofmann F, Biskupek L (2012b) Testing various facets of the equivalence principle using lunar laser ranging. Classical Quant Grav 29:184006
Murphy TW, Adelberger EG, Battat JBR, Hoyle CD, Johnson NH, McMillan RJ, Michelsen EL, Stubbs CW, Swanson HE (2011) Laser ranging to the lost Lunokhod 1 reflector. Icarus 211: 1103–1108
Nordtvedt K (1995) The relativistic orbit observables in lunar laser ranging. Icarus 114:51–62
Pavlis N, Holmes S, Kenyon S, Factor J (2008) An earth gravitational model to degree 2160: EGM2008, presented at the 2008 General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union, Vienna, Austria
Pearlman MR, Degnan JJ, Bosworth JM (2002) The international laser ranging service. Adv Space Res 30:135–143
Soffel M, Klioner S, Müller J, Biskupek L (2008) Gravitomagnetism and lunar laser ranging. Phys Rev D 78(2):024033
Williams JG (2007) A scheme for lunar inner core detection. Geophys Res Lett 34:L03202
Williams JG, Turyshev SG, Boggs DH (2009) Lunar laser ranging tests of the equivalence principle with the Earth and Moon. Int J Modern Phys D 18:1129–1175
Zerhouni W, Capitaine N (2009) Celestial pole offsets from lunar laser ranging and comparison with VLBI. Astron Astrophys 507:1687–1695
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge with thanks, that the more than 41 years of used LLR data has been obtained under the efforts of the personnel at the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in France, the LURE Observatory in Maui, Hawaii, the McDonald Observatory in Texas as well as the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico. We would also like to thank the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern for supporting this research. This research was funded by the Centre for Quantum Engineering and Space-Time Research QUEST and the DFG, the German Research Foundation, within the research unit FOR584 “Earth rotation and global dynamic processes”.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Müller, J., Hofmann, F., Fang, X., Biskupek, L. (2014). Lunar Laser Ranging: Recent Results Based on Refined Modelling. In: Rizos, C., Willis, P. (eds) Earth on the Edge: Science for a Sustainable Planet. International Association of Geodesy Symposia, vol 139. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37222-3_59
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37222-3_59
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-37221-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-37222-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)