Chris H. Lee, Department of Astronomy – University of Michigan (UM), Patrick Seitzer, Department of Astronomy – University of Michigan (UM), Roc M. Cutri, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) – California Institute of Technology, Carl J. Grillmair, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) – California Institute of Technology, Thomas Schildknecht, Astronomical Institute at the University of Bern (AIUB), Jeremy J. Murray-Krezan, Space C2 Technologies Program – Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Donald Bédard, Department of Physics and Space Science – Royal Military College of Canada (RMCC)
Keywords: GEO, satellite, infrared, WISE
Abstract:
Over 860 observations of 245 box-wing (BW) and 18 cylindrical (C) active geostationary satellites (GEOsats) have been extracted from the thousands of resident space objects (RSOs) serendipitously detected by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). In 2010, WISE performed an all-sky infrared (IR) survey at 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 microns simultaneously from low Earth orbit (LEO). For GEOsats, these wavelengths are in the reflective and thermal IR regimes, and all observations were obtained near quadrature. From our unresolved IR photometry of GEOsats, we report and discuss a distinguishing characteristic between BW and C GEOsats using a unique combination of IR fluxes, along with generalizations of GEOsat photometry and colors as a whole based on our large sample size.
Date of Conference: September 19-22, 2017
Track: Poster