SLR Product Holdings

Products derived from Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) data archived in NASA’s Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS) support scientific research in:

• Terrestrial reference frame (center of mass and scale)
• Improve understanding of the dynamics and modeling of GNSS orbits (one of our major users)
• Calibration and validation of ocean and ice altimetry missions
• Static and time-varying gravity field (low order/degree terms)
• Plate tectonics and crustal deformation
• Earth orientation and rotation (polar motion, length of day)
• Total Earth mass distribution
• Space science – satellite dynamics, etc.
• Relativity and lunar science

Data Summary

The CDDIS archive of laser ranging products consists of solutions derived by analysis centers in support of the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS). The ILRS combination centers retrieve these solutions and produce the combined ILRS A and B solutions (generated by the primary and backup ILRS combination centers, respectively).

Products derived from these SLR observations include precise satellite ephemerides, station positions and velocities of sites in the ILRS network, and Earth orientation parameters (EOPs) including polar motion and rates and length-of-day. ILRS analysis and combination centers deliver the precise orbit and station position/EOP products to the ILRS data centers, including CDDIS.