Rita Cognion (Oceanit)
Keywords: debris, geosynchronous, rotation, inactive satellites, autocorrelation
Abstract:
Stabilized satellites in geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) become drifters after they are decommissioned. In addition, each satellite begins to tumble or process in its inactive state. As they drift around the earth, the inactive satellites provide sequential viewing opportunities—with synodic periods of months or weeks—for observation with an earth-based sensor. In order to measure their rotation rates as a function of time, we track a set of inactive satellites over several months as each comes into view over Hawaii. Images of each satellite are acquired through a small (0.4-m) optical telescope system with sampling periods of a few seconds. With temporal light curves obtained through relative, in-frame photometry on each image, we analyze both the time and frequency domains in order to determine the satellites rotation rates.
Date of Conference: September 9-12, 2014
Track: Poster