CNES optical observations of space debris in geostationary orbit with the TAROT telescope: IADC campaign results
Abstract
Precise knowledge of the satellites and debris in the vicinity of the geostationary arc is necessary to improve our knowledge of this population in order to preserve the space environment for the future. Ground based telescopes offer a satisfactory solution to acquire this knowledge due to the particularities of this orbit, namely the negligible movement of objects with respect to the Earth's rotation. The TAROT instrument is used to detect and track objects of a given minimum size located around the geostationary orbit. This telescope has the advantage to be automatic with a real time processing capability and can be remotely controlled. Moreover, its large field of view enables a systematic survey of the geostationary/geosynchronous region to detect and track both catalogued and uncatalogued objects. The use of a star catalogue makes it possible to determine the telescope pointing to a high level of precision, and thus to obtain position data for the observed object. Detection of small size objects is possible as photons from the observed object are cumulated on the same pixel of the CCD array during the exposure time. Since January 2004, CNES participates to the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) observation campaigns with the TAROT telescope. These campaigns consist in joint systematic optical searches of the geosynchronous region. A correlation of the detected objects is performed with a debris catalogue. This paper first presents the main characteristics of the TAROT observatory and the principle of its image processing software. Secondly, it presents the IADC campaigns overview, the search strategy chosen for the TAROT telescope, the data processing to determine the orbital elements of the observed objects and the correlation with the NASA/USSTRATCOM catalogue. The final results are the distribution of correlated and uncorrelated objects, their orbital elements and visual apparent magnitude. The scanned area during the first phase (January) of the campaign is 540 squared degrees. Finally perspectives for further developments of the image processing software and observation strategy to track uncatalogued objects are presented.
- Publication:
-
35th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004cosp...35..984T