<ul data-eligibleForWebStory="false"><li>The J2 effect is the largest perturbation of a satellite orbit from a simple elliptical orbit, caused by the earth not being a point mass but an oblate spheroid.</li><li>The J2 effect is significant for satellites in low earth orbit (LEO) and medium earth orbit (MEO), affecting the longitude of a satellite's crossing of the equatorial plane.</li><li>J2 coefficients, particularly for Earth, show that the J2 effect is small in magnitude but has a notable impact on satellite orbits, with Mars and Neptune having larger J2 values.</li><li>The J2 effect serves as the first refinement in accounting for factors beyond the assumptions of the two-body problem in satellite orbit calculations.</li></ul>

The biggest perturbation of satellite orbits

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