Critique of Adler's paper on dark matter, POD 3 Aug 09

[jjohnson]

The authors of this picture of the day correctly note in their critique (in passing) that, "there could be other forces exerting influences also."
Adler bases part of his arguments on measurement based on the LAGEOS satellite. There were 2 of these, I and II, with similar elliptical (near-circular) orbits of roughly 5850 km above Earth's surface. Both satellites spent time twice each orbit in the inner Van Allen radiation belt (VAB) as they traversed the "magnetic equator". The inner VAB plasma torus is largely constituted of heavy H+ ions, while the outer one consists of an electron plasma. These satellites were hollow spheres constructed of brass and aluminum, 600mm in diameter.
At their orbital altitude, atmospheric drag is insignificant, as the expected orbital lifetime was estimated at 8 million years.
If these lightweight metal spacecraft had a voltage potential relative to the inner VAB, was it not possible that there was a possibly significant alteration of their orbits as a result? Also, these satellites' orbital velocity was approximately normal to the protons' velocity in the VAB during transit, which may have added another drag and/or acceleration effect on their orbits. If the effects of repeated accelerations resulted in any errors in the measurements made by utilizing the LAGEOS satellites, those should have been reflected in any uncertainty attributed to those metrics. I have not been able to find any such reports of uncertainties due to any of these effects, although that is not unanticipated. Should LAGEOS orbital uncertainties or anomalies exist, they too should have been discussed in Dr. Adler's paper, as those measurements are part of the basis of his conclusion regarding "dark matter".
J Johnson

[mharratsc]

Jj, were you aware that there was another thread on this topic on the TPOD board? There was a bit more dialogue going on over in that thread...

Mike H.

[jjohnson]

Thanks, Mike. Maybe I'll get this moved over there to the TPOD's page. I'm still stumbling around a tad, here... I have an illustration to add, anyway.
J