Bifurcation of frozen orbits in a gravity field with zonal harmonics

Abstract

We propose a methodology to study the bifurcation sequences of frozen orbits when the 2nd-order fundamental model of the satellite problem is augmented with the contribution of octupolar terms and relativistic corrections. The method is based on the analysis of twice-reduced closed normal forms expressed in terms of suitable combinations of the invariants of the Kepler problem, able to provide a clear geometric view of the problem.