BVRI photometric observations and light-curve analysis of GEO objects

Cardona, Tommaso; Seitzer, Patrick; Rossi, Alessandro; Piergentili, Fabrizio; Santoni, Fábio

doi:10.1016/j.asr.2016.05.025

Cited by 37 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Fourier analysis of light curve (c) uncovers a period of 3.4 s; the SL-12 appears to exhibit higherfrequency brightness variations than expected from previous studies of such rocket bodies (see e.g. Cardona et al, 2016), though aliasing effects could be at play as a result of the object's geometric symmetry. The ∼ 5 s period signals obtained for the other two SL-12 light curves are in better agreement with the findings of the cited study.…”

Section: Photometric Light Curvesmentioning

confidence: 57%

DebrisWatch I: A survey of faint geosynchronous debris

Blake

Chote

Pollacco

et al. 2021

Advances in Space Research

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Recent anomalies exhibited by satellites and rocket bodies have highlighted that a population of faint debris exists at geosynchronous (GEO) altitudes, where there are no natural removal mechanisms. Despite previous optical surveys probing to around 10-20 cm in size, regular monitoring of faint sources at GEO is challenging, thus our knowledge remains sparse. It is essential that we continue to explore the faint debris population using large telescopes to better understand the risk posed to active GEO satellites. To this end, we present photometric results from a survey of the GEO region carried out with the 2.54 m Isaac Newton Telescope in La Palma, Canary Islands. We probe to 21 st visual magnitude (around 10 cm, assuming Lambertian spheres with an albedo of 0.1), uncovering 129 orbital tracks with GEO-like motion across the eight nights of dark-grey time comprising the survey. The faint end of our brightness distribution continues to rise until the sensitivity limit of the sensor is reached, suggesting that the modal brightness could be even fainter. We uncover a number of faint, uncatalogued objects that show photometric signatures of rapid tumbling, many of which straddle the limiting magnitude of our survey over the course of a single exposure, posing a complex issue when estimating object size. This

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Section: Photometric Light Curvesmentioning

confidence: 57%

DebrisWatch I: A survey of faint geosynchronous debris

Blake

Chote

Pollacco

et al. 2021

Advances in Space Research

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“…The scheduler will identify the most convenient celestial coordinates region in terms of statistical analysis of the population of the specified orbit to perform acquisitions [21,22]; 2. Light curve by indicating the NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) catalogue identification code of the target [23]; 3. Follow-up analogous of the tracking mode, nevertheless, once the target is scheduled, it will be automatically scheduled for the next day too with the highest scientific priority to improve the orbit [6].…”

Section: Nico Architecture Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scheduling Solution for Space Debris Observations

Cardona

Curianò

Piergentili

et al. 2018

Adv. Astronaut. Sci. Technol.

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The scheduling model of orbital debris can be considered as composed by a set of optical ground station which move with the surface of the Earth, a set of space situation awareness centre which can be assumed connected to ground station, and orbital debris travelling through different kind of orbit generating visibility windows when the line of sight (LOS) to ground station exists. To solve this, scheduling problem can be considered as the allocation of observing time of the telescope to collect measurements of the debris (i.e., to improve orbit or attitude determination, spin rate evolution, etc.). The increasing number of space debris to be observed with optical ground station has caused the combinatorial explosion in the number of intervals to be scheduled. Therefore, new scheduling approach to provide a solution to the new requests is needed. In the framework of the Agreement between Italian Space Agency (ASI) and National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) "Supporto alle attività IADC e validazione pre-operativa per SST " (N.2015-028-R.0), S5Lab research group has developed a network of observatory fully dedicated for space debris observations. Moreover, a scheduler called NICO (Networked Instrument Coordinator for debris Observations) has been developed specifically designed for the harmonization of individual user requests by considering meteorological and astronomical constraints. This paper outlines the advantages of the developed custom solution based on modular architecture. NICO's architecture is based on a multilayer system: the front end is designed to allow external registered users to specify their observing requests and to assign specific scientific priority; the back-end is changed for the business logic by determining the visibility windows for each request and to solve the conflict. The implemented conflict solver solution is based on genetic algorithms. This paper outlines the results of the application of NICO scheduler to the 2018-IADC (Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee) international optical observing campaigns.

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“…Color indices were extracted from all the measured spectra of satellites and space debris objects in Table 1 and Table 2. Meteosat satellites and some high AMR objects (internal denomination starting with 849) were also measured by Cardona et al (2016) and Rossi et al (2012) during different observation nights. Laboratory photometric and spectroscopic average color indices of various samples were also measured by Cowardin et al (2010).…”

Section: Comparison Of Color Indicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a reference the color of the Sun is also indicated (Stritzinger et al, 2005). In blue the indices from Cardona et al (2016) are indicated and in general are within the ranges covered by the ensemble of the observed satellites. The set of B-V indices is centered around 1, while most of the V-R and R-I values seem to be grouped around 0.7.…”

Section: Comparison Of Color Indicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Light curves of geostationary (GEO) objects exhibit a variety of periodic patterns with time scales in the range from fractions of second to several minutes (Schildknecht et al, 2008b). Color photometry observations of objects in GEO-like orbits (Cardona et al, 2016;Zhao et al, 2016) could provide information on the surface material of the objects. The difficulty in this case is the color determination when the brightness changes of the objects are very fast and for equipment reasons it is not possible to acquire multiple colors measurements simultaneously.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reflectance spectroscopy characterization of space debris

Vananti

Schildknecht

Krag

2017

Advances in Space Research

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When characterizing the space debris environment one important point is the identification of the physical properties of the space debris objects. Reflectance spectroscopy is a possible technique to study the surface material of these objects with observations from the ground. In this work the results collected from spectroscopy observations of space debris in orbit are presented. The observations were performed at the 1-meter ESA Space Debris Telescope (ESASDT) in Tenerife equipped with a spectrograph in the 450-960 nm wavelength range. A preliminary classification using three different categories purely based on the shape and appearance of the spectra was proposed. Two debris objects with high AMR could be successfully associated with materials analyzed in the laboratory. The results show that the two debris objects are probably pieces of Kapton MLI with 'gold' and 'silver' coating, respectively. Color indices were extracted from the spectroscopic measurements. For high AMR objects the colors seem to be consistent with the proposed classification in three categories. The B-R and R-I laboratory measurements of 'gold' and 'silver' MLI taken from the literature are comparable with the obtained results.

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BVRI photometric observations and light-curve analysis of GEO objects

Cited by 37 publications

References 8 publications

DebrisWatch I: A survey of faint geosynchronous debris

DebrisWatch I: A survey of faint geosynchronous debris

Scheduling Solution for Space Debris Observations

Reflectance spectroscopy characterization of space debris

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