Accurate analytical and statistical approaches to reduce O-C discrepancies in the precessional parameters

Abstract

The Hipparcos catalog provides a reference frame at optical wavelengths for the new International Celestial Reference System (ICRS). This new reference system was adopted following the resolution agreed at the 23rd IAU General Assembly held in Kyoto in 1997. Differences in the Hipparcos system of proper motions and the previous materialization of the reference frame, the FK5, are expected to be caused only by the combined effects of the motion of the equinox of the FK5 and the precession of the equator and the ecliptic. Several authors have pointed out an inconsistency between the differences in proper motion of the Hipparcos-FK5 and the correction of the precessional values derived from VLBI and lunar laser ranging (LLR) observations. Most of them have claimed that these discrepancies are due to slightly biased proper motions in the FK5 catalog. The different mathematical models that have been employed to explain these errors have not fully accounted for the discrepancies in the correc- tion of the precessional parameters. Our goal here is to offer an explanation for this fact. We propose the use of independent parametric and nonparametric models. The introduction of a nonparametric model, combined with the inner product in the square integrable functions over the unitary sphere, would give us values which do not depend on the possible interdependencies existing in the data set. The evidence shows that zonal studies are needed. This would lead us to introduce a local nonparametric model. All these models will provide independent corrections to the precessional values, which could then be compared in order to study the reliability in each case. Finally, we obtain values for the precession corrections that are very consistent with those that are currently adopted