Ocean tide perturbations in the orbits of GEOS 1 and GEOS 2

Douglaset al. (1973) have estimated tidal parameters from the orbits of GEOS 1 and GEOS 2. Their results, interpreted in terms of Love numbers, are rather dispersive due in part to their neglect of the ocean tides. The ocean tidal corrections are estimated in this paper, but although they do not explain all of the discrepancy they do emphasise the importance of these perturbations on the motion of close Earth satellites. The remaining discrepancies could result in part from the fact that part of the long period tidal perturbations have been absorbed by the zonal harmonics in the Earth's gravity field.