Abstract Orbital correlation of space objects is one of the most important elements in space object identification. Using the orbital elements, we provide correlation criteria to determine if objects are coplanar, co-orbital or the same. We analyze the prediction error of the correlation parameters for different orbital types and propose an orbital correlation method for space objects. The method is validated using two line elements and multisatellite launching data. The experimental results show that the proposed method is effective, especially for space objects in near-circular orbits.
Keywords methods: data analysis — methods: statistical — celestial mechanics
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