Debris swarms seen by SMEI
| Autor: | Kathleen E. Kraemer, Thomas A. Kuchar, Donald R. Mizuno, Stephan D. Price, J. C. Johnston |
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| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: |
Physics
Atmospheric Science Solar mass media_common.quotation_subject Aerospace Engineering Magnitude (mathematics) Swarm behaviour Astronomy Astronomy and Astrophysics Orbit Geophysics Space and Planetary Science Sky Coronal mass ejection General Earth and Planetary Sciences Satellite media_common Space debris |
| Zdroj: | Advances in Space Research. 49:162-176 |
| ISSN: | 0273-1177 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.asr.2011.09.006 |
| Popis: | The large 3° × 60° fields-of-view of the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) instruments are oriented on the stabilized Coriolis satellite to image most of the sky each Sun-synchronous orbit. Besides observing coronal mass ejections, the SMEI mission objective, SMEI also has detected a plethora of Earth-orbiting satellites (resident space objects or RSOs) brighter than ∼8th magnitude at a rate of about 1 per minute. Occasionally, SMEI sees an RSO swarm: a sudden onset of a large number of RSOs, many more than the nominal rate, upto dozens detected in a 4-s frame. These swarms usually last for a few minutes. A sample of six such RSO ensembles is analyzed in this paper in which the distance and the direction of the velocity vector for individual objects are estimated. We present the observational evidence indicating that the swarms must be near-field objects traveling in orbits near that of Coriolis, and that the relatively speeds between the objects and Coriolis are low. Further, analyses indicate that the RSOs are quite close ( |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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