FireOPAL: Technical Performance and First Results

摘要

FireOPAL is a distributed network of standalone, fixed mount optical sensors that is designed to monitor a large number of RSOs at high cadence. Here we describe the technical performance and first results of our prototype network. For each 5 second image, we find that FireOPAL measures apparent angular coordinates with an accuracy of a few arcseconds. The system measures absolute time within milliseconds, absolute flux to within 10%, and detects point sources with visual magnitude of around 16 or brighter. Each unit has sufficient computational resources to completely process an image onboard within seconds, reports measurements to a central server in near real time, which are then used for orbit determination and catalogue maintenance. The data from our prototype network across Australia as used to calculate accurate orbits for hundreds of objects per clear night. When orbits for both LEO and GEO objects are propagated forward more than one day, the predictions match the observations to better than one pixel. Over the past few months, the system has recorded more than one million light curves of satellites which are used to deduce properties such as size, tumbling, composition, pattern of life, etc. Finally, we report on the capture rate of objects of different sizes and in different orbital regimes, and discuss ongoing plans to improve the performance of the network.