Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userTechnical Note: Asteroid Detection Demonstration from SkySat-3 B612 Data using Synthetic Tracking
342
0
0.0
(
0
)
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
We report results from analyzing the B612 asteroid observation data taken by the sCMOS cameras on board of Planet SkySat-3 using the synthetic tracking technique. The analysis demonstrates the expected sensitivity improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio of the asteroids from properly stacking up the the short exposure images in post-processing.
rate research
Read More
We report a detection of a faint near-Earth asteroid (NEA), which was done using our synthetic tracking technique and the CHIMERA instrument on the Palomar 200-inch telescope. This asteroid, with apparent magnitude of 23, was moving at 5.97 degrees per day and was detected at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 15 using 30 sec of data taken at a 16.7 Hz frame rate. The detection was confirmed by a second observation one hour later at the same SNR. The asteroid moved 7 arcseconds in sky over the 30 sec of integration time because of its high proper motion. The synthetic tracking using 16.7 Hz frames avoided the trailing loss suffered by conventional techniques relying on 30-sec exposure, which would degrade the surface brightness of image on CCD to an approximate magnitude of 25. This detection was a result of our 12-hour blind search conducted on the Palomar 200-inch telescope over two nights on September 11 and 12, 2013 scanning twice over six 5.0 deg x 0.043 deg fields. The fact that we detected only one NEA, is consistent with Harriss estimation of the asteroid population distribution, which was used to predict the detection of 1--2 asteroids of absolute magnitude H=28--31 per night. The design of experiment, data analysis method, and algorithms for estimating astrometry are presented. We also demonstrate a milli-arcsecond astrometry using observations of two bright asteroids with the same system on Apr 3, 2013. Strategies of scheduling observations to detect small and fast-moving NEAs with the synthetic tracking technique are discussed.
Accurate astrometry is crucial for determining orbits of near-Earth-asteroids (NEAs) and therefore better tracking them. This paper reports on a demonstration of 10 milliarcsecond-level astrometric precision on a dozen NEAs using the Pomona College 40 inch telescope, at the JPLs Table Mountain Facility. We used the technique of synthetic tracking, in which many short exposure (1 second) images are acquired and then combined in post-processing to track both target asteroid and reference stars across the field of view. This technique avoids the trailing loss and keeps the jitter effects from atmosphere and telescope pointing common between the asteroid and reference stars, resulting in higher astrometric precision than the 100 mas level astrometry from traditional approach of using long exposure images. Treating our synthetic tracking of near-Earth asteroids as a proxy for observations of future spacecraft while they are downlinking data via their high rate optical communication laser beams, our approach shows precision plane-of-sky measurements can be obtained by the optical ground terminals for navigation. We also discuss how future data releases from the Gaia mission can improve our results.
The Zwicky Transit Factory (ZTF) is a powerful time domain survey facility with a large field of view. We apply the synthetic tracking technique to integrate a ZTFs long-dwell dataset, which consists of 133 nominal 30-second exposure frames spanning about 1.5 hours, to search for slowly moving asteroids down to approximately 23rd magnitude. We found more than one thousand objects from searching 40 CCD-quadrant subfields, each of which covers a field size of $sim$0.73 deg$^2$. While most of the objects are main belt asteroids, there are asteroids belonging to families of Trojan, Hilda, Hungaria, Phocaea, and near-Earth-asteroids. Such an approach is effective and productive. Here we report the data process and results.
We present the Umbrella software suite for asteroid detection, validation, identification and reporting. The current core of Umbrella is an open-source modular library, called Umbrella2, that includes algorithms and interfaces for all steps of the processing pipeline, including a novel detection algorithm for faint trails. Building on the library, we have also implemented a detection pipeline accessible both as a desktop program (ViaNearby) and via a web server (Webrella), which we have successfully used in near real-time data reduction of a few asteroid surveys on the Wide Field Camera of the Isaac Newton Telescope. In this paper we describe the library, focusing on the interfaces and algorithms available, and we present the results obtained with the desktop version on a set of well-curated fields used by the EURONEAR project as an asteroid detection benchmark.
Many researches have been carried out for change detection using temporal SAR images. In this paper an algorithm for change detection using SAR videos has been proposed. There are various challenges related to SAR videos such as high level of speckle noise, rotation of SAR image frames of the video around a particular axis due to the circular movement of airborne vehicle, non-uniform back scattering of SAR pulses. Hence conventional change detection algorithms used for optical videos and SAR temporal images cannot be directly utilized for SAR videos. We propose an algorithm which is a combination of optical flow calculation using Lucas Kanade (LK) method and blob detection. The developed method follows a four steps approach: image filtering and enhancement, applying LK method, blob analysis and combining LK method with blob analysis. The performance of the developed approach was tested on SAR videos available on Sandia National Laboratories website and SAR videos generated by a SAR simulator.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
