Question

How should a closed-ended terrestrial trajectory be corrected for the Coriolis effect?

Answer 1

I have tried verifying the numerical integration of the Coriolis effect for 1000 to 2000-yard rifle fire by switching ON/OFF the Coriolis correction of a good ballistic simulator program (PRODAS). The program integrates an instantaneously evaluated Coriolis acceleration along with the aerodynamic and gravitational accelerations. My calculations yield about 10 percent larger Coriolis effects than the delta after the same number of timeslice intervals are computed in two otherwise identical simulation runs. I theorize that the integrated Coriolis effect should be independent of the pathbetween the two end-points of any segment of a terrestrial trajectory. If so, the velocity used in the instantaneous Coriolis acceleration can be replaced with the displacement vector of the projectile divided by the time-of-flight over the flight segment. The displacement is just the vector difference between the projectile positions at the ends of the flight segment. And the cumulative Coriolis effect over a segment becomes just the displacement vector crossed with the earth rotation rate vector multiplied by the time-of-flight. I speculate that the directly integrated "instantaneous Coriolis force" produces some along-track component that should not be allowed. An additional "normalizing constraint" is needed. The constraint should be perpendicularity to the displacement vector as above.

Answer 2

In physics, the Coriolis force is an inertial or fictitious force that seems to act on ... They are correction factors that do not exist in a non- accelerating or inertial reference frame.