Specific problems to be solved by the GEODYN II program are defined by input cards. These cards fall into two categories: The Global Set and the Arc Set. The Global Set contains information which is common to all of the arcs being processed. Each Arc Set contains information defining its arc. Therefore one or more Arc Sets could be present in the GEODYN-II input.
The Global Set consists of four groups in the following order: The first group is the mandatory Run Description on three cards with no defined format. The second group is the set of Option cards which may be used to define and/or estimate conditions which are common to all the arcs being processed. The third group is the optional Station Coordinate Subgroup which may be used to alter GEODYN II's set of tracking stations. The last group in the Global Set is the mandatory Global Set Termination card.
The Arc Set also has four groups in this order: The first group is the mandatory Arc Description on three (or more) title cards well as mandatory cards to describe the reference coordinate system and time and spacecraft parameters in this arc. The second group is the set of Arc Option cards which may be specified to make use of GEODYN II's individual arc capabilities. The third group is the Data Selection/Deletion Subgroup which may be used to edit input observations. The Data Selection/Deletion Subgroup should not be present in orbit generation runs. In data reduction runs, the use of DATA and SELECT cards is mandatory (see individual card for explanation). The last group in the Arc Set is the mandatory Arc Set Termination card.