[FPSPACE] Pioneer Doppler data analysis: study of periodic anomalies

[LARRY KLAES]

Pioneer Doppler data analysis: study of periodic anomalies

Authors: A. Levy, B. Christophe, P. Berio, G. Metris, J-M. Courty, S. 
Reynaud

(Submitted on 16 Sep 2008)

Abstract: This paper reports the results of an analysis of the Doppler 
tracking data of Pioneer probes which did show an anomalous behaviour. A 
software has been developed for the sake of performing a data analysis as 
independent as possible from that of J. Anderson et al. (Phys. Rev. D65, 
082004, 2002), using the same data set.

A first output of this new analysis is a confirmation of the existence of a 
secular anomaly with an amplitude about 0.8 nm s$^{-2}$ compatible with that 
reported by Anderson et al. A second output is the study of periodic 
variations of the anomaly, which we characterize as functions of the 
azimuthal angle $\varphi$ defined by the directions Sun-Earth Antenna and 
Sun-Pioneer.

An improved fit is obtained with periodic variations written as the sum of a 
secular acceleration and two sinusoids of the angles $\varphi$ and 
$2\varphi$. The tests which have been performed for assessing the robustness 
of these results are presented.

Comments: 13 pages, 6 figures

Subjects: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc); Space Physics 
(physics.space-ph)

Cite as: arXiv:0809.2682v1 [gr-qc]

Submission history

From: Serge Reynaud [view email]

[v1] Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:33:05 GMT (117kb)

http://arxiv.org/abs/0809.2682