An effective ground-based observation design targeting fragmentation debris originated from multiple break-up events

Abstract

This paper proposes an effective observation planning method targeting fragmentation debris originated from several different breakup events. Given orbital elements of fragmentation debris in a database, or two-line element set (TLE) of cataloged debris, their orbital configurations can be predicted for a specific date, as well as their orbital directions from a specific observation site. The method proposed in this work utilizes the observation angles (azimuth and elevations) obtained from such predicted data to efficiently detect known and unknown fragmentation debris occurred from several fragmentation events. Finally, this paper tries to validate the effectiveness of the proposed observation planning method through actual experimental data obtained from an observation campaign using EISCAT radar system in 2019.