The Orbits of the Major Saturnian Satellites and the Gravity Field of Saturn from Spacecraft and Earth-based Observations

Abstract

We have fitted numerically integrated orbits for the major Saturnian satellites to a large set ofastrometric observations over the time interval 1966 September to 2003 December and to data obtainedwith the Pioneer 11 , Voyager , and Cassini spacecraft. The results of the fit are new ephemeridesfor the satellites and a revised gravity field for the Saturnian system. We include an accuracyassessment for the ephemerides and the gravity parameters.