Low Earth Orbit Object Observations Using the Buckland Park VHF Radar

Holdsworth, David A.; Spargo, Andrew J.; Adami, Christian

doi:10.1029/2019rs006873

Cited by 11 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 24 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…are within the accuracy of the TLEs themselves, as positional errors generally vary from a minimum error of approximately 1 km at the TLE's epoch up to 5 km, depending on the age of the TLE [36], [37]. These uncertainties could potentially mask any systematic biases or offsets, either from the system itself or from the ionosphere [38], [39]. Longer surveillance campaigns are needed to properly assess any potential systemic issues and to fully evaluate the accuracy of short-arc orbit determination.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Establishing the Capabilities of the Murchison Widefield Array as a Passive Radar for the Surveillance of Space

Hennessy¹,

Young²,

Tingay³

et al. 2022

Remote Sensing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper describes the use of the Murchison Widefield Array, a low-frequency radio telescope at a radio-quiet Western Australian site, as a radar receiver forming part of a continent-spanning multistatic radar network for the surveillance of space. This paper details the system geometry employed, the orbit-specific radar signal processing, and the orbit determination algorithms necessary to ensure resident space objects are detected, tracked, and propagated. Finally, the paper includes the results processed after a short collection campaign utilising several FM radio transmitters across the country, up to a maximum baseline distance of over 2500 km. The results demonstrate the Murchison Widefield Array is able to provide widefield and persistent coverage of objects in low Earth orbit.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Establishing the Capabilities of the Murchison Widefield Array as a Passive Radar for the Surveillance of Space

Hennessy¹,

Young²,

Tingay³

et al. 2022

Remote Sensing

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Additionally, LeoLabs has recently installed the Western Australian Space Radar, featuring two S-band phased array radar systems [7]. The use of non-traditional space sensors has also been investigated, such as event-based sensors [8], a DSTG experimental highfrequency (HF) line-of-sight (LOS) radar system [9,10], the Murchison Widefield radio astronomy array (MWA) for passive radar observations of satellite reflections from FM transmitters of opportunity [11,12], and the Buckland Park stratosphere-troposphere (BPST) radar, a civilian wind profiling radar operating in the lower VHF band [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A common first-order detection sensitivity figure of merit (FoM) is the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a target with 0 dBm 2 RCS at a 1000 km range from both the radar transmitter and receiver. In this regard, the BPST radar is between 35 and 50 dB less sensitive than the SSN radars [13]. This is mostly a consequence of the SSN radars mostly operating in the UHF range in order to obtain high sensitivity against small objects (<10 cm) [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The BPST radar, operating at 55 MHz, has reduced sensitivity for small targets. For instance, Figure 1 of [13] shows that the RCS of a 20 cm diameter sphere is reduced by approximately 40 dB for a radar operating at 55 MHz (e.g., BPST radar: Rayleigh scatter) compared to 1.32 GHz (e.g., TRADEX L-band: Mie scatter). The field of view can be regarded as wide (WFoV) or narrow (NFoV) field of view.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Space Domain Awareness Observations Using the Buckland Park VHF Radar

Holdsworth,

Spargo,

Reid

et al. 2024

Remote Sensing

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is increasing interest in space domain awareness worldwide, motivating investigation of the use of non-traditional sensors for space surveillance. One such class of sensor is VHF wind profiling radars, which have a low cost relative to other radars typically applied to this task. These radars are ubiquitous throughout the world and may potentially offer complementary space surveillance capabilities to the Space Surveillance Network. This paper updates an initial investigation on the use of Buckland Park VHF wind profiling radars for observing resident space objects in low Earth orbit to further investigate the space surveillance capabilities of the sensor class. The radar was operated during the Australian Defence “SpaceFest” 2019 activity, incorporating new beam scheduling and signal processing functionality that extend upon the capabilities described in the initial investigation. The beam scheduling capability used two-line element propagations to determine the appropriate beam direction to use to observe transiting satellites. The signal processing capabilities used a technique based on the Keystone transform to correct for range migration, allowing the development of new signal processing modes that allow the coherent integration time to be increased to improve the SNR of the observed targets, thereby increasing the detection rate. The results reveal that 5874 objects were detected over 10 days, with 2202 unique objects detected, representing a three-fold increase in detection rate over previous single-beam direction observations. The maximum detection height was 2975.4 km, indicating a capability to detect objects in medium Earth orbit. A minimum detectable RCS at 1000 km of −10.97 dBm2 (0.09 m2) was observed. The effects of Faraday rotation resulting from the use of linearly polarised antennae are demonstrated. The radar’s utility for providing total electron content (TEC) measurements is investigated using a high-range resolution mode and high-precision ephemeris data. The short-term Fourier transform is applied to demonstrate the radar’s ability to investigate satellite rotation characteristics and monitor ionospheric plasma waves and instabilities.

show abstract

“…Due to the advantages of being able to work in all weather and at all times, ground‐based radars have been an important observational technique for space debris. In the United States, the Asteroids and Space Debris segment of the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) uses radars and telescopes to constantly search and track potentially impacting space debris and provide corresponding orbital information to the community (Africano et al., 2004; Holdsworth et al., 2020; Muntoni et al., 2021). The space debris detection of small size or at long range requires the use of high‐power, large‐aperture radar, which is generally much more expensive.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation and Observational Evaluation of Space Debris Detection by Sanya Incoherent Scatter Radar

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

According to the definition given by the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, space debris consists of man-made objects, including their fragments and parts, in Earth orbit that are nonfunctional with no reasonable expectation of their being able to assume or resume their intended functions or any other functions for which they are or can be authorized (United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, 1999). A more general definition is that space debris includes both naturally occurring meteoroids and objects in Earth orbit that are generated by human activity (Krisko, 2007). With the increase in human space activities, the amount of space debris increases year by year. According to the latest data published by the European Space Agency, there exists 1,036,500 pieces of space debris larger than 1 cm in diameter around our Earth, but only approximately 3% (30,040) of them with larger sizes were cataloged (Ruchi & Arpit, 2021). Among the space debris not cataloged, the part with a diameter between 1 and 10 cm was the most dangerous (Zhao et al., 2015). The threat comes from the lack of their predictive location information as well as the failure of the passive protection. For the ground observations of the space debris, radars, optical telescopes, and laser systems are usually employed (

show abstract

Low Earth Orbit Object Observations Using the Buckland Park VHF Radar

Cited by 11 publications

References 24 publications

Establishing the Capabilities of the Murchison Widefield Array as a Passive Radar for the Surveillance of Space

Establishing the Capabilities of the Murchison Widefield Array as a Passive Radar for the Surveillance of Space

Space Domain Awareness Observations Using the Buckland Park VHF Radar

Simulation and Observational Evaluation of Space Debris Detection by Sanya Incoherent Scatter Radar

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About