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Yoder, C.F., Williams, J.G., Dickey, J.O., Schutz, B.E., Eanes, R.J. and Tapley, B.D. (1983) Secular Variation of Earth’s Gravitational Harmonic J2 Coefficient from LAGEOS and Non-Tidal Acceleration of Earth’s Rotation. Nature, 303, 757-762.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/303757a0

has been cited by the following article:

• TITLE: Cumulative Perturbations Affecting a Spacecraft on a Mars Equatorial Orbit from the Waxing and Waning of the Polar Caps of the Planet

  AUTHORS: Jean-Pierre Barriot

  KEYWORDS: Mars’ Length-of-Day, Orbit Perturbations, Floquet’s Theorem

  JOURNAL NAME: Open Access Library Journal, Vol.2 No.12, December 23, 2015

  ABSTRACT: We demonstrate in this paper that periodic variations of the J2 gravity coefficient of a planet induce small cumulative perturbations on a given family of circular equatorial orbits, and that these perturbations could be measurable with current radiosciences technology. For this purpose, we first consider a Poincaré expansion of the Newtonian equations of motion. Then, by using Floquet’s theory, we demonstrate that, unlike the excitation mechanism, the perturbations are non-periodic, and that the orbit is not “stable” in the long-term, with perturbations growing exponentially. We give the full theory and an application to the case of planet Mars.