The center-of-mass correction of the geodetic satellite AJISAI for single-photon laser ranging

Detection timing of laser pulse returned from the satellite AJISAI is modeled for a single-photon laser ranging system. The average distribution of ten thousand return pulses simulated under their model agrees well with the distribution of residuals of full-rate range data taken from Herstmonceux station that uses the single-photon detection concept. Their model indicates that the center-of-mass correction for AJISAI will differ by 28 mm between multiphoton detection and single-photon detection. The ranging data of AJISAI and LAGEOS satellites from 1995-1996 was analyzed to estimate the range bias for each laser station, and Herstmonceux station was found to have a 26 mm difference between AJISAI and LAGEOS. The other multiphoton stations have smaller differences. The results show that the difference between the multiphoton system and the single-photon system is detected and close to that predicted by our AJISAI model.