GEO Collisional Risk Assessment Based on Analysis of NASA-WISE Data and Modeling
Abstract
From December 2009 through 2011 the NASA Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) gathered radiometrically exquisite measurements of debris in near Earth orbits, substantially augmenting the current catalog of known debris. The NASA-WISE GEO belt debris population adds potentially thousands previously uncataloged objects. This paper describes characterization of the NASA-WISE GEO belt orbital debris population in terms of location, epoch, and size. Previous studies of collisional rate in GEO invoke the presence of a large number of debris in the region, with characteristic sizes too small to track, i.e. not in the catalog, but large enough to cause significant damage and fragmentation in a collision. We use new information suggested by the analysis of NASA-WISE infrared measurements to propose an updated GEO belt debris population. Our population estimate is an improvement over previous population estimates because of the unique characteristics of the NASA-WISE, a multispectral infrared imager. Based on the revised population estimate, we estimate the total collisional rate in the GEO belt with the inclusion of projected uncatalogued debris and application of a conjunction assessment technique.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 18, 2015
- Accession Number
- AD1001966
Entities
People
- Derek Surka
- Jeremy M. Krezan
- Phan D. Dao
- Samantha Howard
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory