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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Short timescale imaging polarimetry of geostationary satellite Thor-6
T2 - the nature of micro-glints
AU - Wiersema, Klaas
AU - Chote, Paul
AU - Marchant, Jonathan
AU - Covino, Stefano
AU - Maund, Justyn
AU - Agathanggelou, Alexander
AU - Feline, William
AU - George, Simon
AU - Privett, Grant
AU - Simmons, Brooke
AU - Steele, Iain
PY - 2022/11/15
Y1 - 2022/11/15
N2 - Large constellations of orbiting communication satellites will become an important source of noise for present and future astronomical observatories. Mitigation measures rely on high quality predictive models of the position and expected brightness of these objects. Optical linear imaging polarimetry holds promise as a quantitative tool to improve our understanding of the physics of reflection of sunlight off satellite components and through which models of expected brightness can be improved. We present the first simultaneous short-timescale linear polarimetry and optical photometry observations of a geostationary satellite, using the new MOPTOP imaging polarimeter on the 2 m Liverpool Telescope. Our target, telecommunication satellite Thor-6, shows prominent short timescale glint-like features in the lightcurve, some as short as seconds. Our polarimetric observations overlap with several of these micro-glints, and have the cadence required to resolve them. We find that the polarisation lightcurve is remarkably smooth, the short time scale glints are not seen to produce strong polarimetric features in our observation. We show how short timescale polarimetry can further constrain the properties of the components responsible for these micro-glints.
AB - Large constellations of orbiting communication satellites will become an important source of noise for present and future astronomical observatories. Mitigation measures rely on high quality predictive models of the position and expected brightness of these objects. Optical linear imaging polarimetry holds promise as a quantitative tool to improve our understanding of the physics of reflection of sunlight off satellite components and through which models of expected brightness can be improved. We present the first simultaneous short-timescale linear polarimetry and optical photometry observations of a geostationary satellite, using the new MOPTOP imaging polarimeter on the 2 m Liverpool Telescope. Our target, telecommunication satellite Thor-6, shows prominent short timescale glint-like features in the lightcurve, some as short as seconds. Our polarimetric observations overlap with several of these micro-glints, and have the cadence required to resolve them. We find that the polarisation lightcurve is remarkably smooth, the short time scale glints are not seen to produce strong polarimetric features in our observation. We show how short timescale polarimetry can further constrain the properties of the components responsible for these micro-glints.
KW - Geosynchronous Earth orbit
KW - Optical imaging
KW - Polarization
U2 - 10.1016/j.asr.2022.07.034
DO - 10.1016/j.asr.2022.07.034
M3 - Journal article
VL - 70
SP - 3003
EP - 3015
JO - Advances in Space Research
JF - Advances in Space Research
SN - 0273-1177
IS - 10
ER -