NAVIGATION OF SATELLITE MEASUREMENTS WITHOUT GROUND CONTROL POINTS

The minimum of information on satellite dynamics (a part of celestial mechanics) which is needed to navigate operational polar orbiting mete orological satellites either for direct or inverse referencing without ground control points, is presented. This software is tailored to the orbit information available. Its validation by ground control points is also included. The accuracy achieved by the improved software in th e determination of the time of satellite culmination over a pixel (or pixel line) and in the off-nadir angle (or pixel number) is comparable to the pixel size (1-5 km) of the AVHRR onboard NOAA-N satellites, if the standard orbital elements are not older than about two weeks.